A Destiny From The Stars
by sassyRabbit
Summary: So dark, so vicious, so evil.  Relic  of Elements was a hidden Valen's legacy, he made it right before his mysterious death! Rue and Mint involved themselves in such bloody chronicles, where scars revealed the past.. Chapter 1-4 in editing process.
1. Chapter 1

Western Desert - [Relic] of Elements

Hello.. I'm sassyRabbit and this is my first fanfiction. I love Threads of Fate or Dewprism, that's why i want to write a fanfiction about this action RPG. Please review, and i don't mind any complaints or critics. But, be kind of course. ^^ Forgive my grammar, my main language is not English..

Disclaimer : Threads of Fate from Squaresoft, now Square Enix! =)

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Flashback

Rue met Mint in Carona Forest for the first time. Mint who had just helped Elena, the only daughter of Klaus and Mira, from two low-class brutes, was introduced by Klaus to a boy who had blank expression and seemed to be gloomy all the time- that boy was Rue. At the first glance, she really disliked his clothing way. And especially, the hat! Was it some kind of pot or what? Tasteless.. In addition, Mint almost bursted in laughter to see the strangest blade ever in the world placed at the boy's back, she didn't count on how it showed the strength of its owner for carrying it easily anywhere. Of course, Mint had a personal problem with him due to his position as her rival in that treasure hunt!

"Geez... Weirdo. Biggy eyes, no expression, duh.. He looks like a porcelain doll! " Mint didn't like dolls as every girls would do. That reminded her to Maya, her wicked little sister who dethroned her three years ago. That's right, Mint was once a princess of the holy magical kingdom, East Heaven Kingdom. She was bossy, arrogant, and dirty-mouthed, yet she was smart and tough- not mentioning, she was pretty too. Mint broke all the rules in the palace, even a puny rule about supper time. Unlike Mint, Maya was infamous over the kingdom due to her excellent manners. That was behavioural reason why Mint was dethroned from the sucessor position by East Heaven parliament with a man named Doll Master as the leader, and Maya would replace her as the next queen. Mint still remembered, it was a dark rainy night when Maya and Doll Master shoved her out of the palace, the same time she promised to discover the legendary superb magical object, Valen's [relic]. She didn't target on East Heaven anymore, but the whole world should be under her footing!

Less likely, Rue had the same ambition, yet a far cry in reason. Three years ago, one terrible tragedy he would never forget for the rest of his life happened to Claire, a girl whom he always considered as his sister. Claire was a killed by a man with beast arm, Arm of Death. Ever since, he wandered everywhere to find [relic], he believed mighty power of the [relic] would bring Claire back to life. She was more important than everything in this world to Rue, he would sacrifice even his life to revive Claire.

It started when Rue woke up in the middle of ruins five years ago, didn't remember his identity even a bit. He walked around in strange grassfield for several days until he passed out due to extreme hunger and thirst. Claire was the one who found him, and since the day, she nurtured him. If it wasn't her, he might have passed away.

Now, back to the [relic]. The thing which was the beginning of all stories and the one that might end everything. It was started by the presence of Valen, the greatest Aeon ever existed on the earth. Aeons, a clan of magicians where Valen belonged to, inherited the ability to create original spells, something that ordinary magicians could never do. Some even said, Aeons could move the star merely from the earth. However, despite of their excellence, Aeons were selfish and envious. They tried to keep secrets of their special magics from others, eventhough there was Aeons Super Annual Court- an open meeting which was held to announce the latest invention. [Relic] was one invention obliged to announce in the court, it was a powerful magical object consisted from hundreds of special spells- the spells were different from one Aeon to another. Due to its amazing power, every Aeon had to declare their own [relic] to prevent crimes.

Valen's [Relic] was the greatest among the entire [relics]. He named it Dewprism, since it kept the dew or essence of the universe inside- comprised of heavens, earth, time, and life. Everyone said he was trying to be a God. At the end, Valen hid together with Dewprism in his fortress, and sealed himself there. Nobody ever heard about him anymore.

At the beginning of [relic]'s hunt, Mint was annoyed with Rue's cold behaviour, until the boy saved her life from a Skull Beast in Underground Ruins. Since then, the ice wall between them liquefied and through the process of discovering Dewprism, they became good friends. They found many astonishing facts, included the fact that Rue was indeed a Doll of Valen- an army of dolls which was intended for Valen's revival back to rule the world. And a fact about Doll Master's true identity as Doll of Valen, originally named as Ruecian, and the beast who caused Claire's death, in his Arm of Death form. Ruecian tried to revive Valen due to the duty burdening him as that Aeon's army, with the help from three servants- Psycho Master, Mode Master, and Trap Master. This bunch of villains kidnapped Prima Doll, special doll made to break the seal of Valen's [relic], and did what Prima was created for. Nevertheless, Rue and Mint could defeat them all- though Ruecian then decided to help Rue, so did his loyal servants.

After all the things they had been through, Rue finally got his wish granted, yet he had to fight Valen. Poor Mint, Valen brought Dewprism to another dimension and disappeared, leaving the Princess with her World Domination plan. The only advantage she could regain was her position as the oldest princess in East Heaven Kingdom.

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Three months after Dewprism journey..

Rue and Maya was exploring a ruin where one suspicious black box laid in the middle. Somehow, Rue had a big hope it would be the similar box that kept a Doll of Valen inside. He didn't wait for Maya to complete her sentence, slowly approached with eyes focusing on that box. He stopped to feel the mystical breeze in the ruin, in mind he repeated again the words he was going to say to the new Doll. A long sigh begun the spell.

"Gizmo = Gia = Gias . To you Born of Dew, I command. Accept your destiny and release your powers."

One transparent cover floated in the air and slowly shattered into sparkly dusts. There, following the cover, an asleep punky-white-haired boy with porcelain skin appeared in standing position. Maya exhaled in surprise. This boy was indeed a Doll of Valen.

Rue held back his breath when the doll's eyes gently opened. The same colour, the same size, the same emotion- hazel, big, blank eyed. Dolls of Valen were supposed to have no expression in the very beginning of their life. Unlike Rue, this Doll recognized Rue and remembered his own name, Ruenis, including his duty to revive Valen. Though it was hard, Rue told Ruenis to follow his will, rather than fulfilling the duty to Valen whose whereabout was even indefinite. It might be Ruenis pure mind or Rue's charm, the younger doll finally decided to live with Rue and left the duty.

After two weeks since the awakening of Ruenis, the peaceful days were over when somebody knocked the front door so hard that Ruenis almost dropped a bowl of soup and Claire stopped from her stew cooking activity. She glanced Rue who was looking at the door cautiously, strangely had a thin line of smile on his face.

"Rue?" she called softly. But suddenly, the door blasted open and revealed young lady with firey orange hair and burgundy iris. Rue chuckled. He knew it! He hadn't heard any news from her in the last three months, now she indescently forced to enter his house. Was it about World Domination again? Yes, it had to be that stuff.

Mint's face blushed in happiness to see everyone. Daily life in East Heaven sucked, meeting these fellows- especially that Doll of Valen- made her blood insanely seethe. Well, meeting him meant adventure, which also meant the [relic], and which also also meant.. WORLD DOMINATION, BABY!

"Uhm, Mint.. " Two first words came out of Rue's mouth. It wasn't that he didn't want to continue, but Mint quickly bursted in words.

"Rue, Claire, and- uhm, Rueniz? Oops! Ruenin?- whatever! Prima and Elena came to my palace and told me- guess what? Klaus and Mira get information about another [relic] in Western Desert! UUYYEEAA!" Mint jumped and babbled at the same time. However, that place rang a bell in Ruenis' brain.

"Western Desert? You mean, Ephlesia City? Valen once conducted experiments of [relic] there.." He spoke in childish voice. Hearing the confirmation from a normal Doll of Valen, instead an amnesiac one (read : Rue), Mint hyperactively jumped more, "Oh! Oh! My [relic]! My world conquest!" suddenly Mint stopped and glared at Rue who gazed her back calmly, "Hey, Rue.. You will join me, won't ya? You promised you'd help me! Not fair, you were the only one who got benefit from Dewprism.."

"Did I say that to you?"

His words made her blood pressure raise sharply. Mint stomped her foot in annoyance, yet Rue was staring with caring look at the older girl who was standing in the corner of the room. He was asking for permission, without saying a word. That was how they usually communicated to each other whereas Claire could always read his eyes.

"Just follow the will in your heart, Rue. That's the same thing you do these years.." Claire smiled motherly to him. Rue inhaled deeply and closed his eyes. After a while..

"I want to see everyone again, Claire."

Claire walked towards Rue, sweet scent oozing out of her purple robe. She placed her hands on the boy's shoulder and spoke, "I'll miss you, Rue, I know I will. But, I can't keep you forever here. Enjoy your journey, okay?"

"Okay, Claire. I'll see you soon." He might not show anything exaggerated superficially, on the contrary deeply inside, he realized he wouldn't see his sister for a long time and he would definitely miss her. Then, again, Mint broke the solemnity spread in the air. She just couldn't resist sweet moments- they reminisced her to the fake-sweet Maya, she wasn't over with her already.

"Alrighty~! Tomorrow we'll set out on 8 in the morning! Now, I'm going back to the hotel and prepare everything.. Byyeee!" she was overflowed by joy that smile never faded from her pretty face. Mint was about to leave when Rue pulled her back into the house and said, "Why don't you wait a little longer and have dinner with us, Mint? We can discuss about the journey too.."

Well, who could resist an invitation from the best adventure partner?

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They didn't say a word since they left Rue's home, on a journey to Western Desert. It's kind of awkward, you know, walking through a dark forest without any chit chats? That made the situation become much more horrible. Rue then decided to clear the horrible situation and began one verbose conversation.

"How's your life, Mint?" asked Rue. Mint raised both of her hands, showing a boring face.

"I did some good stuffs, but nothing too fun. Still, Maya never stopped making me crazy day by day! My world domination plan will never stop until she scrubs the toilets and floors all over East Heaven palace! GYAHAHAHAHA!" Mint laughed madly. Her laughter echoed in the forest, she created spooky feeling instead.

"Um.. (Geez, I shouldn't have asked her..)" Rue mumbled unclearly as a response. He stopped a while to chop some big branches with the Arc Edge. Mint didn't care about branches and bossed Rue to do all the chopping jobs. Princess' typical bossy behaviour, of course. Fortunately, Rue did what Mint said without complaining.

"You will be a good minister. Maybe I will give you a chance to change from Dogwalking Minister to Woodchopping Minister. I think Elena won't suit the cleaning job as Housekeeping Minister. She'd better be a Cooking Minister, but WAIT, the only food she can cook is pumpkin pie and she's gonna be soooo dead! " Mint mumbled continuously without stopping any second.

Rue smiled frankly seeing her spirit. He could recall a silly conversation he had with Mint and Elena at the lake about what they were gonna do after Dewprism hunt. Mint, as arrogantly as always, stated that she would be busy taking care of the world and would badly need ministers. That was when Mint offered one position to Rue. He didn't even know what came to his brain that he accepted her offer. 'Geez, i wonder how my fate as her minister will be. Nightmare..' suddenly the thought came to Rue's mind and it made him drop sweat.

"What about you, Rue? How's the life after Claire's revival? It must be FUN, right?" Mint grinned. It was fishy, but Rue didn't notice.

"Why do you emphasize on 'FUN'?" Rue asked bluntly unaware. He just didn't understand.

Suddenly, a big cockroach-like thing attacked them. It was as big as adult's hand palm and its head bursted with sharp bluish teeth. Rue tried to swing his Arc Edge directly on it, but it hopped to Mint's right boot. Mint screamed at the top of her lung, didn't even forget to curse, took out her Dual Haloes and began hitting that thing as hard as she could. Rue jumped to the other side, didn't want to get one or many of Mint's irregular hits.

"Get off you [expletive] cockroach-insect-thing! I'll kick you to hell and you'll get your ass roasted!" Mint kept cursing until she realized that the animal had leapt somewhere else and disappeared-left Mint hitting her own foot.

"Awww.. you'll get my revenge someday!" Mint held her ached foot.

"You mean, in the hell?" Rue tried to make fun of angry Mint.

Mint looked at him furiously, " Rue, do you know the consequence of making fun of me? I know you do, RIGHT?" Mint smiled horribly, it made Rue cough in defeat.

"O-okay.. Sorry.." Rue smiled begging for Mint's forgiveness. Mint just forgot about his anger by seeing Rue's dolly face. She didn't know why, but her heart felt funny. 'His smile is so angelic.. Erm, maybe that's because I've just met him after such a long time. Five months, it's not a long time, but 5x30x24 is 12960000 seconds! Twelve million seconds seem long, right? Of course, why should I miss him! Tsk.. ' Mint argued in her mind. Whilst Rue kept walking ahead and didn't notice that they started to separate about 7 meters.

"Mint, what do you mean that 'FUN' word? H-hey, what are you doing? Don't separate from me! We don't know what kind of monster wandering here.." Rue walked back to where Mint stood and grabbed her hand. Mint couldn't say anything, her cheeks blush a little. 'Err. He's warm.. Yuck! What the heck am i thinking? He's a stinking doll! Don't ever repeat the same thing again! ' Mint argued again in her mind.

"Mint, are you okay?" Rue frowned. Mint started to beat her right hand (as an angel) with her left hand (as a devil). But, actually the angel was a devil in disguise, so Mint had two sides of devil. That should explain her dirty mouth.

"W-what? O-of course! I'm okay, as always! Keep walking, Rue! Or, I'll leave you behind!" Mint suddenly sped up and by Rue, try to keep her pride high. Rue innocently thought, 'Didn't I leave her behind before? Oh, well. Forget it."

He wasn't gonna mess with this mighty princess anymore so he just followed her, didn't bother to say a word. His silky snow-like hairs felt sticking to his forehead. The forest was sultry although the sunshine barely slipped through the canopy. Western Desert is 3 miles ahead, but since a bunch of branches and roots blocked their way, the distance felt further then it should be. Mint herself felt tired and now walked slower beside Rue.

"So, how's your love life with Claire?" Again, she questioned another silly one.

"What? N-no, she's like a sister to me, Mint! Indeed, that's all I feel for her.." Rue answered nervously. Rue still felt that he never understood about the feeling such love, except anger, being confused, or funny.

"Reeaallyy..? You did hug her tightly that time, I remember.. I thought you'd also kiss her there. Hee-hee!" Mint mentioned about the reunion between Rue and Claire, exactly everyone thought he would kiss Claire. Rue blushed and his face looked really red. He tried to cut some more branches, nevertheless couldn't concentrate anymore. The branches were not damaged even a slice.

"What's the matter with this!" Rue growled desperately at the branches.

Mint didn't want to waste time, she casted Triple Blades spell and in no time the branches got cut into pieces. Meanwhile, Rue was drown in his thought about his feeling towards Claire.

"Come on, slowpoke! We still have 2,5 miles more to go! We can talk about Claire again if you move your lazy butt and walk beside mee.. Hee-hee!" Mint grinned on Rue again. Rue engulfed his saliva as much as he could and started walking, better to obey Mint than offend her. So, the journey continued with Mint needling Rue or talking about her (again) world conquest plan. Rue listened to the spunky girl carefully although sometimes Mint uttered curses, and it wasn't nice to hear carefully.

The forest was horrible, just in term of its thick darkness, but exactly no dangerous monsters lurked around. Rue felt the journey was forever and the only lurking monster was Mint. Man, she fitted the criteria to being Psycho Master. He meant it, she DID make him feel psycho!

They finally reached the border and saw an extreme difference. It was a dessert before them, dry and chapped-surface dessert with hot wind blew their eyes, while behind their back, a thick forest was extremely damp. Just 30 meters ahead, some buildings looked just like a part of the dessert. They were different in height but the same colour with sand. Mint lost her mood to make fun of Rue because of the heat-Rue was so relieved to death-and began stomping rapidly on the ground.

"Dang it! World domination plan, I'll fight for ya! No matter how dry this dessert is, bla..bla..bla..and..bla..bla..but..bla..bla..then..bla..bla.." Mint gave a speech about her world domination till a half hour later. No, exactly that was only 30 seconds, but Rue felt as if it had been 30 minutes long. Mint ended her speech then they started to walk towards the city.

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Finally, Rue and Mint arrived at Town of Lacquer-where Klaus and his family had stayed for a week. The name was rather confusing, why did they name it Lacquer? The buildings were dry and cracked, didn't look like something polished by lacquer.

"There you go. Town of Lacquer! Here I am! Princess Mint : the prettiest, the strongest, the smartest princess in East Heaven Kingdom! Better remember my name! Because I will be your future queen, you'll see!" Mint yelled at the townfolks. Those folks did notice an unknown girl from somewhere who suddenly yelled at them, they even hardly heard what she said though, the town was crowded and noisy enough. It was the day when foreigners came to trade goods in Lacquer.

"Hey, who's the orange-haired girl? Do you know her?"

"Nope. Never seen before."

"What? Princess? Queen?"

"Alright, maybe she's just another crazy girl. Remember Mad Donna, the girl who died by cart(NOT CAR) crash while chasing a cat? She really thought that she was a queen. Maybe this girl is suffering from similar insanity.."

Mint stomped madly her right foot at the ground for hearing their words while Rue tried to pull her away from there.

"Mint, that was unreasonable. Really," finally Rue said something after they got into a safer place. They were walking down an alley, headed to inn where Klaus family stayed.

"I was introducing myself! Nothing was wrong about it," said Mint. Definitely trying to save her pride.

"... (Um.. Exactly, she didn't introduce herself really well.)" Rue thought it was rather funny. The folks even thought that she was nuts. However, he kept it himself, then they continued walking until Mint muttered something.

"Alright, Rue. Where the heck is this?"

Rue stopped in confusion. "I thought you were leading the way."

After three hours spent by asking the townfolks where Ice Castle Inn was, stomping foot, arguing, furious hitting and pinching toward Rue, they finally arrived. Both Rue and Mint looked tired and dirty. The town was like a big maze, there were lots of alleys that seemed similar.

"Huff-huff-huff.. This town is crazy! Such a big maze! I'm getting headache!" Mint stomped her right foot and hitting the ground with one of Dual Haloes.

"..." Rue was too exhausted to complain, his hair sticked to his badly sweaty forehead. Sweat drained continuously toward his jaw , he tried to sweep it away but it kept flowing like tears. His face felt sticky as well, the air was full of flying sand. He could feel that his skin was hot and poignant.

It was a small inn and didn't look like an "ice castle" at all. The inn was just the same like other buildings, as dry as sand. It didn't freeze like ice, but it did HEAT their eyes.

"Ice Castle Inn.. What the hell.. Fire Castle would suit this ugly place! " Mint complained, left hand gripped her hip, while her right hand pointed the building. Rue didn't notice her, he walked into the inn without hesitation. At least, it would be cooler inside of inn than here.

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Knock knock!

Room 343. Rue knocked the door while Mint jumped happily. One step closer to her [Relic]. She couldn't resist the possibility that Klaus maybe had found some informations. She also sang a song about the [Relic], how she will conquer the world, and how grueling years Maya will endure by cleaning the palace. She had considered about it again that cleaning toilets wouldn't be enough for Maya. She deserved worse.

After 10 minutes, nobody answered or opened the door. Tired Mint couldn't be patient anymore.

"Where are those people anyway? That's it! I'm gonna jumpkick this door then I'm gonna have a good shower and bed rest!" Mint stomped (this was the 100th for that day) her foot on the floor.

"..." Rue was too tired to stop her. 'I think that's a good idea. I'm gonna have a good shower too and lovely bed rest. Um... Wait, why can't do that there! That's impolite..' Rue got confused on his own thought.

But, before the awesome jumpkick by Princess Mint happened, somebody opened the door and it was..

A man with punky red hair. He wore a yellow long cotton robe and black leather pants with buckles and rhinestones all over the pants side. He had a sinister smile. Actually he was handsome enough and acted rather funny than annoying, but he wasn't a good person in Rue and Mint's past.

Narcius?

"Hey, whassup you brats! Never thought that I'd be here?" yelled Narcius, his movement didn't change from the last time they saw him.

"The [expletive] Porcupine?"

"Trap Master?"

"Pshhh..! Don't ya better check the genious Klaus and that old hag Mira? BWA HA HA HA HA HA!"

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Ookaayy.. please review my story, okay? I really appreciate your thoughts about it, whatever it is, just tell me right away! ^^ See you in the next chapter! ~SassyRabbit~


	2. Chapter 2

Western Desert - [Relic] of Elements Ch.2

This is the 2nd chapter and I want to write more chapters from this fanfiction. ^^ Hee-hee..

Awrite, this is the chapter 2.. enjoy!

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"[Expletive] Porcupinneee! Why do you always butt in my [relic] hunt!" Mint yelled at Narcius. Rue was not in the mood to yell, he was curious about why this silly Trap Master was in Klaus's room but he was too tired to pull out his super heavy Arc Edge! However, he didn't feel any dangerous aura from that punk. He was sure about it- although he didn't know why- that was why he let Mint quarrel with him.

He took a nice position leaning against the wall with folded hands before his chest. He only needed good shower, nice food, and comfortable rest. It was only 2 hours, but having a walk with overhyped Mint gave 6 hours effect. Maybe because it was the first day.

"Tchhh.. Stop calling my hairdo 'porcupine', you fool! I'm cool! My hairdo is cool! You ain't gonna know what cool stuffs are, Princess!" Narcius yelled back at Mint, emphasized on 'Princess'- he wasn't praising, he was mocking her instead. Rue sat on the floor against the wall staring the two quarreled like husband and wife, waiting faithfully for them to stop.

"Do you want to fight? Because I do want to punch your face with Blowup Rocks! That will shut your [expletive] mouth off and send you to hell! Now, tell me what you've done to Klaus and his family!" Mint pulled out her Dual Haloes from her back.

"BWAHA HA HA HA! Don't you realize, [expletive]? Man, you're as confident as ever! I'm the one who will beat the crap out of you! Hey, Dirty Mouth Princess, I'm surprised you're worried about them. Try me if you want to know! " Narcius playfully challenged the saucy girl. Alright, he was no serious at all. On the contrary, Mint supposed it as one serious challenge to fight. Town of Lacquer burnt up her emotion, that Mint in her angry state now was almost able to breathe fire, just like the old dragon friend Wylaf.

And...

"Ouch! Ouch! OUCH! Dammit, brat! Stop it! STOP AT ONCE!"

Mint didn't cast any spells, not Blowup Rocks nor Drop Ice spell, but she fervently hit him with her Dual Haloes- the worst thing, she MEANT it. Rue quickly got up and tried to pull Mint away from Narcius. An old man stucked his head out from a half-open door at the end of the aisle. He looked like melting candle due to lots of flabby wrinkles on his face.

"Hey, kyds! Stop makyng noyse here! Go fyght somewhere, all of you! Grrhh.." He shouted at those three wrestling teenagers, the voice was hoarse and high-pitched. Well, the old man didn't know whom he was talking to. Mint, at the time was choking Narcius, turned and showed typical gaze of a murderer. "You, oldie.. If you really love your life, go back to your room and stop COMPLAINING! You keep doing it, you're the NEXT after this porcupine!" She brought Narcius forward so that the innocent grandpa could see clearly Narcius' pale face with tongue weakly hanging out in the corner of his lips. He shuddered in horror and squeaked, immediately leaving them without saying a word.

Mint chuckled, "I bet he's hiding under the bed now.." She hadn't forgot about Narcius, though. Bursting in anger, she grabbed Narcius collar and scream right next to his right ear, "Who are you working for now! Eat this, moron! (POW!) Now, tell me and beg my forgiveness!"

"Pshhh..! No way! I ain't gonna tell or beg anything to you, [expletive]! Ouch! Man, this is bull! " Narcius never gave up on his pride.

"Mint, there's no use torturing him like this.. " Desperately, the human doll tried to tow her from Narcius. On the other hand, she didn't seem to listen. Maybe if she wanted to, it would be good for Narcius- he felt dizzy now.

"What you said? Here, here! Eat Mint's Super Fist! Eeaagghh-" She still made it to launch a new name for this final attack.

"What's happening here? Oh, my! Narcius! Mint! Rue?"

Middle-aged woman came out of the room and stopped the wrestling. It was a woman with pink hair, her hair was a little longer than the last time Rue saw her three months ago. She was wearing blue sleeveless turtle-neck shirt and baggy pants. It was Mira! And the important thing, she looked totally fine, not even a scratch. She was startled of how Mint tackled Narcius.

The three soon got their insanity back. They stood up in a row, bowing their heads like some naughty children who got caught doing crimes by their mother. Though Mira didn't think so. Instead of torturing their minds with hours of lecture, she'd rather stay quiet and smiled.

"Mira, what is this THING doing in your room? I thought he did something to all of you! " Mint complained with all of her efforts, once Mira asked the reason of the fight.

"THING? I'm no thing, MONSTER BRAT! Mira, look! I'm bruised!" Narcius punched Mint's arm. Mira really got a headache seeing them once they started to argue, except Rue- nah, who could ever be angry to a nice, polite, and calm dolly boy?

"Alright, alright.. Mint, I thought we all ever met Narcius in Carona Forest. I know, Mint, it wasn't a pleasant experience for all of us, "the mature woman quickly added the last sentence to prevent Mint from cutting her words with unstoppable complaints, "Klaus, Elena, and Prima were sleeping when you both came, so I had Narcius open the door, and-"

"Mira had you? Wow, are you a servant now? Hee-hee-hee-hee!" Mint let out an evil tehee, tried to reach Narcius's back from behind of Rue. Rue positioned himself between Mint and Narcius, exactly to diminish any chance of fight, then he realized these dirty-mouthed people would never stop even if The Great Wall of China separated them.

"Tch! Shut up!" Narcius pulled Mint's hair from the front of Rue. The awkward moment when Rue got trapped by their hands that passed from his hind and front. Rue rolled his eyes, showing a bored face. Didn't Mira ever thought about what kind of disaster would happen if she tried to mix two stubborn brats in a team?

Mira smiled motherly to the teenagers before her. "Exactly, Mint, Narcius is on our side now.. He's a part of our team."

"NOOOO! How did this disaster happen? " asked Mint with a high-pitched voice. Yes, she had declared it as disaster.

"I saved this family from monsters at the Carona Forest, you hear! See? Now I'm a hero!" Narcius put high-pride-tone in his voice. Mint slipped her tongue out to scold, "Hero? Funny, a Porcupine Hero.. You'll be infamous among babies-" she was cut when suddenly a shrieking voice bursted out of that room.

"Ruuuuueeee! Miiiiiinnntt! YOU'RE HEEREE! KYAAA, I miss you so much! " Elena, the pinkish-orange haired girl, jumped out of the room and hugged her favorite friends at once. She wore a pink shirt and creme short pants, so describing her personality. She looked as happy as 5 years old girl who found her long lost puppies. Narcius jumped aside, shunned himself from Elena and showed disgusting face. Since he joined this family, Elena and Prima were like his worst nightmare. They screamed, they smarted, they cried, they laughed, they played, they whined- everything they do made his head spin really fast.

"(Dang it, Elena.. You're killing me! Gasp..)O-okay, Elena.. I mm-miss y-you too.." Mint was severely choked.

"..." Rue couldn't breathe properly, he looked nervous and pale blue. 'Stop exaggerating, Elena.. Eggkkhh..'

"I really really really really really really miss you two! I thought I'd never see you again! Boo hoo hoo.. ('Geez, she came to my palace two weeks ago with Prima and Rod, and she's already missed me?' thought Mint) Oh, oh, have you seen 'Narcy' Narcius? He's our new shop assistant!" ("Hmph!" Mint held back her laugh) Elena let go of Rue, then grabbed Narcius who was skulking away, "We found him in the swamp of Carona Forest, got attacked by Pollywogs.. Poor Narcy.. He didn't have money to buy food and hadn't eaten for 3 days, so Mom and Dad helped him. Right, Narcy?~ " Elena told them everything she knew. Narcius's mouth hung opened, couldn't stop every fact that Elena blabbered about. Then, everyone, except Elena and Narcius, bursted in laughter. The old man from the end of the aisle came out of his room to see drastic change happening between Mint and Narcius, but when the spunky princess glared him, he quickly returned inside.

"Why do all of you laugh? Oh, I know! Narcy's hairdo is really funny! He looks like a cute porcupine! Cutie cutie Narcy..~" Elena pinched Narcius's cheeks happily. Narcius was speechless. His face was all red. He couldn't yell at Elena because besides her mother was there too, Elena was the one who carefully took care of him.

Mint nudged at the speechless Narcius and whispered, "You look cute with her.. Huh? Huh? What do you think?" Narcius gaped open, furiously whispered back, "You.. I'll rip your dirty mouth after this!"

Mira, still laughed a little, asked them to come into the room. "Alright, kids.. Come in before other guests feel disturbed by your laughs.." No Mira, if only you knew, one old man was praying to God to save his life from a demon-eyed teenage girl.

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So, after a good shower and some snacks, Klaus, Mira, Narcius, Rue, and Mint sat on an old and dusty carpet in the room. Prima and Elena was playing at the town, they didn't want to get involved in adults' business. Although Prima was around hundred years old, he still felt that he was a cute little boy.

The room was a little dark, just mere rusty simple candelier hung at the roof. There was a creaky double-seat sofa at the corner of the room, so lame and ugly. Mint bet that whoever sat on that sofa, that lucky person would collapse together with the sofa and suffer from fleas a day after.

"So, how are Mode Master and Psycho Master doing?" Mint started a conversation with Narcius whilst Klaus was still trying to find something in his suitcase.

Narcius gazed the ceiling, "Just call them Karwyn and Kirielle, Princess.. Well, Karwyn is working in East Heaven's library right now. I bet you don't know, huh, a lamehead like you visiting library- err.. (Mint glared him)" Narcius chuckled nervously, "I'm just kidding, Princess.. Oh, yea. Kirielle opens fashion boutique in a city, in another kingdom." The faces of his fellows appeared in his mind, somehow he missed working with them. Unlike them who finally did what they wanted, Narcius was stucked babysitting Prima and Elena. He got no ability to get a job easily or build a business of him. Ever tried working at the dock by moving the chests, but that sucked since he barely got enough money to buy foods. He was once accepted to be cleaning staff in Carona Hotel, unfortunately he yelled at a guest and got fired. At the tavern, he washed dishes, no, he dropped a pile of dishes until Annette forced him to work free of charge.

Klaus finally found something, then took out a dingy paper roll- Mint guessed it was ancient script. He held it carefully, to avoid the possibility of squishing that to dusts- old papers are always prone to minor damage.

"I got this from my close friend, Roger, may God always bless his soul in heaven. He gave it to me before he died, he was suffering a serious disease. Roger's son wasn't interested in [relics], that's why he trusted me to do research or even to find this [relic].." Klaus showed a sad face, Mira comforted him by laying her hand on his shoulder. Klaus met Roger at ancient materials exploration, since then they did the ancient script and treasure hunt together until Roger married his wife. But still, nothing could ever erase Klaus's memory about his old friend. Roger's death was predictable since he had been suffering from the disease for years, that didn't mean Klaus wouldn't feel terrible.

"His son must be a moron for ignoring [relic], " Mint whispered to Rue. Rue raised his shoulders, didn't comment anything.

"The [relic] is called [Relic] of Elements here. As Prima had told you, it's Valen's. And this paper is Valen's letter to his mysterious apprentice or doll- I still don't have any idea who this person was- to guard this [relic]," Klaus began opening the roll gently. Wisely he cleared throat before reading it out loud.

"My dear Applesweet, when you read this letter, maybe my friends have caught and killed me. Athenacius was suspicious about my experiments in Western Desert, I'm afraid he would find where I hid 'it'. Fortunately, I could seal my lovely Dewprism until your friends come to resurrect me someday. I order you to take care of 'it', my sweetest Applesweet, and do whatever you can to create the Dolls of Valen, I left some fragments of Dewprism to work them on. I trust you, my Applesweet, you are the best I ever had. Yours, Valen."

Klaus ended reading the letter with a tensed face. Exactly, all faces in the room were tensed, even Narcius who once on Valen's revival side when he served for Ruecian. Especially Rue, he loathed Valen and his fate as one of Dolls of Valen more than everything in this world.

"Man, I think Applesweet naming was a joke!" Narcius commented, he was folding his arms before his chest.

"No, it's not a name.. " Rue replied plainly. Everybody looked at him curiously. Mint almost touched Rue's left cheek with her nose tip for staring him too close, she was damn curious. Rue felt her breath on his face, his cheeks blushed a little.

"M-Mint, don't sit too close.." Rue squeaked. He was nervous.

"Oops.. Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry!" Mint looked as red as Rue. Then, everybody was staring at them. Situation was awkward for Rue and Mint.

"Puh-leaassee! Don't bring your love life here, brats! Psshhh.. This is discussion about [relic]!" Narcius talked out of the silence.

"WHAT? NO! SHUT UP! " Mint and Rue yelled together. Narcius was startled. 'Tch.. They are surely a couple,' said Narcius in his mind, a little puzzled.

"So, why do you think so, Rue?" asked Klaus. His right hand shifted his glasses to the right place. "W-what? Mint and I are only friends.. Mint! Say something.." said Rue nervously. Mint nodded her head rapidly, convincing the others. She was too ashamed to say a word.

Klaus, Mira, and Narcius gazed at each other before suddenly bursted in laughter. Rue and Mint looked each other, confused. "W-what? Don't you guys trust us?" Rue mumbled desperately. Mint had already covered her face in maximal frustration and embarrassment with two hands.

"Rue, we trust every alphabet of your words. But, what Klaus meant was how you could be so sure about Applesweet name.. That's all.." Mira explained in a motherly tone. Narcius couldn't stop laughing, he held his stomach and keep laughing.

"BWAHA HA HA HA! You two amuse-Ouch!" Narcius couldn't continue his sentence. Mint's backpack flew to his face before he could do anything about it. "Shut up, Porcupine. You sure are lucky because I didn't throw you with Arc Edge!" Mint tried to hold back her expletive words. Her eyes were fierce and her cheeks blushed heavily.

"I mean, Narcius is right.. Um.." Rue stopped because Mint looked at him sternly, "I-I mean- not about that, Mint, ugh- that Applesweet naming is a joke. Maybe it was a codename given by Valen. I don't think this Applesweet person was a doll. Ruecian and Ruenis called me Brother, but Valen called the dolls as this person's friends. The biggest possibility is that Applesweet was an apprentice of Valen. The MOST trusted apprentice.."

Klaus nodded while his hand gripped his chin. He considered Rue's theory and agreed about it. "Rumours said that Valen had a lot of apprentices, but all of them-except one person-betrayed him. Athenacius and friends were probably behind this betrayal. But, actually they were afraid of Valen's evil ambition and the creation of Dewprism. I think, Applesweet was that loyal apprentice.."

Everybody in that room agreed.

"This is ridiculous! How could those apprentices leave such a precious [relic] like that? " Mint blamed Valen's apprentices.

"No, Mint. It was not about that, it was about Valen. Valen's ambition was to rule the world by himself- alone! They were afraid they were nothing but the tools. Used tools will be destroyed into pieces.." said Rue, his voice was a mix of hatred, sadness, and anger.

"Rue.. We understand," Klaus nodded, followed by Mira. Rue smiled to them, including Narcius. Narcius was surprised but he knew that he shouldn't protest that smile. Rue always considered Klaus and Mira as his parents. Maybe Valen as the creator called him 'son', but that evil magician was no father to him. Elena and Prima could be really annoying many times, but they were almost like his sister and brother. And Mint, she was bossy and impolite, but she was his bestfriend and best partner.

"So, do you have a plan what we're gonna do?" Mint asked Klaus. Her eyes fulfilled by spirit. Klaus smiled, he glanced someone besides who was ever full spirit like Mint.

"Unfortunately, no. I have no idea about what to do first. I mean, I don't even know about this town.. I don't know where to start." Klaus scratched his head which was full of confusion. Mint sighed, she thought this would be easy. Finding Dewprism was tough, but they had all the clues they needed. [Relic] of Elements was too mysterious, nobody talked about it, and the only clue they had was a piece of stinky paper!

"Ruenis said something about Ephlesia City.. Maybe we should go there, " Rue talked to everyone in the room. Klaus shooked his head.

"Nobody knows where Ephlesia City is.."

Mint and Rue looked each other worrily. That was really confusing. If folks of Lacquer didn't know, it'd be almost impossible for strangers like them to know better.

"But, Ruenis was really certain about Ephlesia City.. He can't be wrong.. " Rue couldn't hide the disappointment.

Klaus chuckled, "Oh, I don't mean there is nothing such as Ephlesia City. The [relic] is indeed in Ephlesia City, Rue. But, magic had sealed that place hundreds of years ago, preventing everybody to reach that place. It's almost like Atlantis, it was there, it's still there, but nobody could go there.." Klaus got up and walked to Rue who was completely puzzled, "Cheer up, Rue. We still have plenty chances.. I'm sure, we can work together and find it.. Um, I wonder why you are so determined. Is Claire alright?"

Rue shooked his head and smiled, "Claire is fine, this got nothing to do with her. I'm just afraid that Valen is trying again to come back by using this [relic]. I don't know for sure, but what if-"

"If it's true, then we'll kick his stinky ass and send him to the deepest hell for good!" Mint clenched her fist right before Rue's eyes. Rue was startled but soon regained his mind. He kept quiet for a while until...

"Thank you, Mint. You are the best partner.." Rue smiled frankly. Mint couldn't help it and she stuttered all of a sudden.

"R-r-r-r-re-a-a-a-ll-y-y?" Everybody was staring at them, for the second time this day. Narcius shooked his head, disgusted.

Narcius shouted, "Hey, you two! Go get a room! Not another romantic scene, man!"

Rue and Mint yelled back, "SHUT UP, NARCIUS!"

"See? See? They yell together! What a couple!" Narcius laughed at them.

"Alright! I think, tomorrow we'll try to find some informations about anything related to magic from townfolks.. Rue, Mint, you're tired. Go to sleep, just relax and have a good dream tonight before we have no more time even to sleep. I have a feeling that this journey will be really really complicated and hard, " Klaus finally decided what they were going to do the next day.

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Awriitee.. First, I want to say thanks to ReLiC AnGeL! Thank you thank you thank you! ^^ I will try to complete my fanfiction, so keep reading, okay?

Everybody, please review my story.. I really appreciate every single word from you.. =D See you in the next chapter! ~SassyRabbit


	3. Chapter 3

Awrite this is chapter 3.. ^^ Happy reading!

**Western Desert - Relic of Elements**

Rue's POV

"Rue? Here, here.."

_Someone's calling me.. Who's that? Is it morning already? Is this a dream? Why does his voice sound familiar?_

"Rue.. Wake up. Don't have much time. I have to talk. Come on, boy."

_Ruecian? Is that you?_

I opened my eyes and I saw my brother kneeling before me. His hair was white, same like me, and he had dead fragment of Dewprism on his forehead. He's Ruecian. I saw that both of us were in a dark unlimited room. I didn't see any border, or walls, or doors. It was a plain thick black.

"Don't try to guess where we are, Rue.. I'm confused too," Ruecian giggled until his fang appeared at the corner of his mouth. I smiled to Ruecian, he looks joyful. He only smiled at the end of his life, right after I mentioned that word 'brother'.

"You're in my dream," I squeaked nervously.

"Shortly, yes. Unfortunately, it's not that short. Rue, I want you to hear me carefully," he talked with a super serious face. I nodded several times quickly, I knew I might wake up anytime and couldn't last forever.

"Rue, that [relic], that's too dangerous. I knew this day would happen somehow, the day when somebody tries to unlock it. Don't ever bring back that thing to our world! You can't, I can't imagine what would happen if you do!" Ruecian gripped my arms tightly. He looked so serious, I ever saw this face, but this time I could see anxiety too. He was concerned about me? He is a brother after all, I would feel the same too.

"Why? It's better to fall on our hands, Brother. Mint would get her dream, she helped me to rescue Claire's life. And Klaus, he deserves something too! And I, maybe.. I could-I could revive you!" I almost lost my voice when I said the last part. I didn't know why it came out of my mouth. But one thing I knew, it was what I wanted honestly deep in my heart. I couldn't deny the fact that if Ruecian hadn't come to encourage me when Valen locked me with dolls spell, I might have been controlled by Valen. And he also never denied me as his brother, he didn't have any intention to fight me unless I insisted to fight him, he did it all before I admitted him as my brother.

"No, Rue.. I wish I could be with you. But dead men stay dead! I died by my choice, I died in trying to stop Valen from taking control of you and the world. Nobody should regret, especially you. Now listen [Rue], Applesweet is a bad person. He's worse than Valen, he was the worst traitor! If you unlock Ephlesia City and bring the required items to break the seal, you will release that devil! Then you heard me, you know that you have to leave the [relic] at once!" Ruecian shooked his head worriedly.

"..." I was just staring at him, didn't know how to respond on his opinion. _This is a dream, should I trust a dream?_ I was thinking in my own dream. But, did he just mention about items? And, he knew Applesweet!

"What items? We need items? And, who is this Applesweet person? Tell me, Ruecian! I want to help Klaus and Mint! I want you to come back again and live with me, Claire, and Ruenis! Don't you want that?" I begged him. He was disappointed. He knew that nobody could stop me from chasing the [relic], even him. He thought that I'd listen, but my question made sadness bloom in his eyes.

"No. I just want to tell you to stop. Now, stop Rue. Hear me. For the second dammit time, Rue, listen to me! I'm not telling you some shits. If you continue, you will sacrifice the world. You will sacrifice Mint, that Klaus man, Claire, Ruenis, and many other lifes.. So, you want to revive me just to see your friends die by your choice? I told you, Applesweet is horrible, maybe he'd kill the useless ones, including me. And if he does that, it means you'll be the indirect cause of my death! "

He was playing with my mind, trying to push me away from the [relic]. _He's my brother, he's not gonna bring me to self destruction. He told me_ _truth!_

"... N-no.. NO!" I yelled at him. "NOOO! I'm not gonna sacrifice anybody! I'm not gonna sacrifice Mint-"

"Rue, wake up! What's going on?" I heard Klaus speaking to me. I couldn't answer him, I was still nailed at Ruecian. He was looking at me too, he wanted my answer. But, I didn't want to answer him!

"Ow, man.. Rue! Open your dammit eyes and stop screaming on my ears! Tch... See, you should sleep together with him, Mint! Not me and Klaus.." Even when Narcius tried to make a fool of Mint and me, I didn't want to look away from Ruecian. "No, Ruecian. You'd better stay away from the living men."

"Shut up, dumbhead! I'll kill you with bare hands now!"

"Mint, your face is blushing.. Prima, don't you see that?"

"Hey Sist, Mint's got a crush on Rue.. You don't know that? I knew that the feeling is mutual!"

"Shut up you, brat! Now, you wanna getting my jumpkick? "

Ruecian finally broke his gaze. He didn't want to see my face, he got up from the floor and walked away. The room began to fade away, so did Ruecian.

"Fine, Rue. Do it with all of your heart. I won't stop you."

So, that was the last thing I heard from him when the room totally disappeared and I opened my eyes.

_You're right, Ruecian. I'll get the __[relic], I'll revive you, and I'll save the world. I won't_ _let you down, I promise._

Normal POV.

Mint was walking down the alley with Rue. It was another alley that looked the same like the one they had passed before. Mint sighed several times, her finger rotated one of the ring. Her eyes showed nothing but tiredness. They tried to get any information about magic, or [relic], or anything! They were hopeless and clueless. What else could be worse than being that two?

Rue dragged his feet slowly with head down. His Arc Edge moved upside down, burdening the boy's right shoulder. When he lifted his face, he could see his dream last night before his eyes. He shooked his head to drive it out of his sight. Mint turned her head and frowned.

"What are you doing? Are you sick or something?"

Rue, head was down, leaned against the wall. Mint couldn't help it, she's so worried. Her thirst worsened her mind. She didn't want to leave Rue nor stay with him under the heat. She turned her head and saw a dirty tavern at the corner. A drink would help the situation.

"Alright, Rue. Your head has been down for 3 hours, since we went out from the inn until now! What the heck is going on with you? Come with me, we should talk," Mint grabbed his hand and force him to the tavern, "I've found a right place! That tavern!" But, Rue didn't move even just for 1 cm.

"No. Leave me alone."

The way he said those words stabbed Mint in the heart. It was cold and heartless. He never treated her that cold. Although he was an ignorant person, he never used that kind of tone. Mint stood still, she was real hurt. They were quiet for a while until Mint scaredly talked once again.

"A-alright.. Sorry.." Mint walked away from Rue, she was about to cry. Not the harsh Belle, or the proud [expletive] Maya, but a passive and ignorant Rue could make her tears almost drip-note: without any curses! She felt it would be better if Rue cursed at her, since it'd only make her mad, not sad at all.

Mint sat by herself on the tavern. She ordered something she didn't even recognize. It was orange, bitter, and had lots of ice cubes. Her heart was more bitter and colder than that thing. She was staring at the busy waiter. The tavern was crowded but Mint felt really lonely.

"!" Mint turned her head when something touched her shoulder. She was about to utter all expletive words before knowing that merely Rue was gripping her. She sighed and also blushed to feeling his hand, it was so tight and safe. Rue smiled and apologized to her for his childish acts ago. Mint didn't answer his words, she had forgiven that man, but she wasn't in a good mood to talk.

"I know I was rude. I should've not talked that silly to you."

"..."

Rue understood that she didn't want to respond. Mint looked to another direction, she tried to ignore Rue.

"I'm not gonna push you. It's okay even when you don't want to forgive me for good."

So, for the next 15 minutes, they just sat down the tavern without saying anything. Rue was looking around when he saw man with black hooded robe. He caught that man observing him several times. He tried to test him by looking away for few seconds and again caught him doing the same behaviour again. His red ruby eyes shone his strength. Rue couldn't hold his curiosity anymore.

"Wait here, okay?" he patted Mint's left arm and leave the chair. His heart thumped hard as if it was going to blow. That man didn't stop the gaze, it was even sharper than ever.

"Hey, do I know you? I see that you're looking at me," said Rue as he reached the distance where that man could hear him without getting too close. The man smirked and got up from his seat. Rue positioned his hand to be steady to pull out the Arc Edge. The man laughed with a more coughing-like voice.

"What, young man.. Stay cool. You're not gonna slay me with your monster axe here, right?" he speaked with creaky voice. It was a pain on Rue's ears, that sounded similar to a sound when a knife scratching the glass.

"... (If you are bastard evil, I'd slay you soon.)" Rue didn't answer, he speaked in his mind.

"You are thinking 'If I am bastard evil, you'd slay me soon'? You can't hide anything from me." The man smirked again when he saw the confused look of Rue's face. Rue was surprised. He thought the only thing that could read his mind was Wylaf. He concluded that he might be

"You're a wizard.." Rue whispered.

"I am. And I know what you and your girl are doing in Town of Lacquer. Oh? She's not your girl? But, I read something else. I can read your prone mind like a book content of my mother language. I can play with your mind, take control over it, and make you dance at the crowded market. Chasing cat, maybe?" The last sentence reminded Rue to Mad Donna. Was he controlling her before her death?

"..." Rue didn't want to think in his mind anymore. He didn't want his 'private sweet escape' to be taken away from him. This man really disturbed and intervented his mind.

The wizard suddenly laughed like hell. Rue wasn't surprised by that sudden harsh laugh, his face didn't change even a bit.

"Whoa, okay! I'm not gonna read your mind! You look horrible when you're angry, you know!"

"Who are you? What do you want from me? Just to the point."

"Well.. You're so defensive. I know something about the [relic] you are looking for. I would help you to find it. See?"

Rue frowned, "Help? That's weird. I don't know you. What if you were gonna ruin the plan?"

"Khukhukhu.. Then I will tell you something- "

"Who's this, Rue?" Mint appeared from behind. Her eyes widened as she was curious seeing the stranger. Mint wondered what made Rue talk with stranger, something he wouldn't normally do.

"Ah, your girl.. So, your name is Princess Mint, you are from the East Heaven Kingdom, and you want to conquer the world. Oh, one more thing.. You are thinking that I'm nuts wearing black clothes in the desert? Shee.. Don't be so mean.." That man talked to Mint as if he had recognized her long time ago. Mint, in much surprise, closed her open mouth with both hands.

"What the heck with you, oldie! How could you know what I'm thinking? And-and-I'm not his GIRL! Okay? You heard me!" Mint shouted at the man furiously. Rue could hardly see fire sprayed from her mouth-just illustration.

"He's a wizard, Mint. And he's able to read mind, just like Wylaf!" said Rue desperately. He held his forehead, wanted to remove burdens in his mind. Mint squeaked in defeat.

"Ugghh.. weirdo is in the air!" Mint yelled, she sat on the chair before the man. The man otherwise giggled when he was supposed to be mad at Mint's impolite words.

"So, why don't we talk in a calm situation, kids? When others just bother.. _Imperium animo, _vade!" he mumbled strange words. Both Rue and Mint realized, it was a spell. Suddenly everybody else stopped the activities, walked in line, paid their bills, and went out of the tavern. The waiters walked quietly into a door and when the door was shut, the mind-controlling wizard began the conversation. Rue and Mint looked at one another, curious what would he say to them.

"This is maybe riddiculous. But, I have to tell you both, especially Rue, about this. I am the youngest apprentice of Valen, Ekrah," he finally told his identity. Rue, hearing that he is Valen's apprentice, jumped out of the seat and confronted Ekrah with Arc Edge in slashing movement. Ekrah jumped one step to the back, shooked his head. He didn't expect such an extreme feedback.

"What are you doing here? I don't accept help from Valen's apprentice! Valen and his servants are shits, just like my fate as his doll!" Rue yelled, his Arc Edge sharp blade was pointed right 1 cm before Ekrah's face. Mint couldn't do anything. That day Rue showed different emotions she never saw before. Otherwise, Ekrah's face was too plain to be that near with Rue's ultimate weapon.

"_Imperium animo, _audire! Now, Rue sit down and listen to me.." Ekrah did a spell on Rue. It seemed different from the folks in tavern, Rue wasn't completely spelled. He still tried to break the spell, but couldn't resist it anyway. He put down the Arc Edge forcedly by the spell, while his mouth growled as loud as he could. Mint screamed,

"[EXPLETIVE] [EXPLETIVE]! Don't you dare use that [expletive] spell to him! Release him!" Mint shouted furiously. She could hardly move from the chair since she was in panic disaster. Rue, was still forcedly, walked toward the chair and sat calmly. It didn't suit the anger in his reddened face. Mint held his hand, she was afraid that wizard might be evil. Suddenly, his anger melt down and changed into the feeling when he saw her so helpless.

"Alright, release this spell. I won't attack you although you mention Valen 100 times! I swear!" Rue gave up on his anger. He doesn't wanna make Mint worry anything. Ekrah acknowledged Rue's feeling, released his spell immediately, "_Imperium animo, _at vero!" Rue felt a cold breeze swirl around him, releasing his brain from Ekrah's control.

Ekrah stood in front of them, he opened his hood and showed his white silky hair and a gem at his forehead. His eyes were much redder than when they were under the hood. He was a little older than Ruecian, but still he didn't age like ordinary human. After all, he was a great magician.

"You're a doll.. " Rue whispered in surprise, his mouth hung opened, "But, you said?- "

Ekrah nodded, "Yes, as you see and what I just told you, I'm an apprentice of Valen as well as a doll of Valen."

"Well, it's not wrong after all. He studied magic from the most powerful Aeon, it reminds me when Doll Master learnt magic from my kingdom," Mint talked to herself, "Oh, Rue! You should learn from us too!"

"But your eyes are RED! I thought all dolls had the same characteristics! White snow-like hair, plain expression, and brown eyes.." Rue argued on Ekrah's appearance.

"Yes, I am a different doll. We can say that we are half brother, Rue. Unfornatutely, I am an uncomplete doll. I am the first Doll of Valen, but I was tested to create the perfect dolls, like you."

Mint glanced Rue and thought, 'They are not different anyhow. Eventhough controlling mind is better than changing into monsters. I mean, who wants to be Mandola? It can't even move!'

Ekrah continued his story.

"My Dewprism fragment is too small and my body traps its power. I was trying to release my power but I ended up injuring my eye. That gem burnt my eye and turned the iris into bright red. I was considered as a failed doll.."

"I wasn't made by Valen himself. He let his most powerful apprentice as well as his only son to make the dolls. He was Aquose, the Applesweet."

To be Continued...

Hey, this is a long chapter and I wrote it from my cell phone. Ugghh.. But, I hope you'll enjoy it. I wonder how many chapters would I write to complete the story. Awrite, please review.. ^^


	4. Chapter 4

This is chappie 4! Banzai!

ReLiC AnGeL : Cell phone is handy, I can bring it and write everywhere..^^ And, staring at the computer is too tiring, I can't resist its bright screen.. What, me clever? But, you're the genius one! Thank you, I'm flattered~ :D

**Chapter 4**

He had the face and hair colour of Ruecian, except his red eyes. His name was Ekrah and he was standing before two teenagers. Mint, the girl, was wearing purple dress and brown leather boots. She was cute yet spunky, you can see it from her tough gaze and..curses, of course. Rue, the boy, was far too different personality from Mint. He was calm, polite, ignorant, passive, and kindhearted. Rue was not human, he was a Doll of Valen, but he doesn't care how bad the destiny he brought, what he cared was how he'd prevent his destiny from creating him into evil creature. His weapon was made from a grayish sharp steel, it was super heavy but the way he carried that thing easily describes how strong he was.

Ekrah mentioned Applesweet, the codename used by Aquos as the real creator of the army Dolls of Valen. The name had confused the team recently, but since Ekrah told his real name and family status, it changed into curiosity and surprise. Especially Rue, he was on a border of two choices, getting the [relic] and release evil Applesweet into the world or letting go of it and Ruecian.

Ekrah closed his eyes after telling about Applesweet. Rue and Mint was quiet, they didn't want to disturb Ekrah, moreover waiting was not a bad idea. Rue unconciously keep gazing Ekrah, if Ekrah closed his eyes, he'd look so much like Ruecian. Rue really missed his brother. He still blamed himself for his death.

"I know Ruecian, he was influenced too much by his destiny," Ekrah opened his eyes and smiled softly, showing the red eyes as well as erasing Ruecian shadow from Rue's mind,"fortunately, he realized his true destiny, to save the world from evil Valen. You shouldn't regret anything, he died from doing what he thought was right."

"..." Rue ducked his head. He knew he should've let go, but he wasn't able to thinking so. Mint raised her shoulders, "What a hubbub boy.." She then looked right at Ekrah, "You're a doll, you recognize Valen, he taught you magic, and you betrayed him? I guess he said that 'You ungrateful. I'm your creator! Gizmo=Gia=Giaz!' Then, you're spelled! Pow!" Mint mimicked Valen's arrogant face and voice. She even acted as Valen uttering spell to Ekrah. Ekrah laughed seeing Mint's act, his hands clapping for Mint's natural show.

"Yes, he said that, Your Highness. Except the spell, he missed that part. But, the one who cared about me was sane and loveable Valen, not that monster. He...changed too much to handle." Ekrah shooked his head, his eyes showed a huge shadow of disappointment to Valen. As someone who ever idolized Valen as a kind and lovely figure, it was hard to accept the new evil Valen.

Ekrah walked around and finally sat on a blue chair with dull golden frame."As Applesweet had stated that I was broken doll and my only ability was telepathy, Valen came to a crying me and said he was the one who would take care of me. He said telepathy was a great thing to improve, he also encouraged me that I'd control everybody with my mind. I still remember his words clearly in my mind until now. As you can guess, next scene would be my training about mind controlling magic with Valen. It is based on two words of every spell-_Imperium animo."_

He was staring to far away through a sandy window in the left corner of tavern. His gaze was indescribable, but Mint would say that he was having nostalgics. The feeling you get from memorizing your childhood, that was Ekrah's feeling that time.

"Valen made Dewprism for good reason, a peaceful world conquest-Mint, it was just similar with your plan. He only wanted to make a better world under his authority. When he explained about the Dewprism's ability to Aeons Super Annual Court, I could clearly see that his friends envied like hell. He brought me as an example of Dolls of Valen, the army who was directed to guard the people, Valen, and Dewprism. Athenacius denied Dewprism, he scolded the idea and accused Valen was trying to ruling world merely for his butt's sake."

A grain size tear was formed at the corner of Ekrah's right eye. He could bring back the memory of the situation at the court in hundreds of years ago, where Athenacius raised his hand and commented on Valen sarcasticly. Then, other Aeons started to scream more humiliation. Ekrah still remembered when some magicians pointed their bent old fingers on him and accusing him as a tool to destroy the world, so he hid behind Valen's purple robe since the Aeons' face were so mean.

"Fire was easily spread. Aeons are great, but most of them are arrogant, envious, and foul-minded. The whole attendants followed Athenacius. They accused Dewprism, saying it was pure evil and stealing nature's forces. They threatened Valen, if he continued his experiment, they would erase him from this world with Death Spell penalty, the worst death ever. But, actually Valen had accomplished two prisms, and was doing one more to fill the ring surrounding the [relic] that time."

"From then, he changed his mindset and goals. It was a dark period. He was terribly angry to every apprentice who objected his Dewprism, he killed some or tortured some or evicting some out of Valen's fortress. He started to create guardian monsters with the help of remained apprentices, including me. One by one, his apprentices ran away from the fortress and join Athenacius' side. The only one human apprentice left was Aquose, his snakey son. He made many dolls but Valen needed one from me. He tested my loyalty as he often found me behave offending his plan. And, that was why you were created, Rue."

Rue gave a blank look. He was too surprised, he couldn't believe to what he just heard. No, he couldn't believe it! So, he was seeing his real creator before him, not just the mastermind.

"But, V-v-valen s-s-said..." Rue stuttered as he spoke.

"Valen was the mastermind, he made the Dewprism and some fragments were placed in his dolls. That gem is your souce of life, if we pluck it away from you, you'll be a mere doll. He's the essential creator, we can say like that."

"... I never imagined about this."

"Alright, boys! We're over that business. So, where's the [relic] part, Ekrah?" Mint spoke out of the topic, she was impatient to hearing about it. Rue glanced at her, a little annoyed. 'What.. She bossed my creator too..' Mint realized that Rue was looking at her, didn't care what Rue was thinking she yelled at her,"Let's get to the point, Rue! We're looking for the [relic], that's what we should talk about!" She clenched her fist tightly and her eyes sparked with ambition. Ekrah, utterly felt okay with her, he laughed again.

"I never saw spirit like this for the past hundreds of years. You amuse me, Princess Mint." Ekrah smiled, although he was actually old enough to mesmerize young ladies, Mint sure got mesmerized. " Geez, he's a sweet old man.." Mint mumbled. Rue envied on Ekrah's charm, he mocked Mint, unconciously full of jealousy. "Geez, you're blushing.. Girls are so easily flattered by cheap praises.." Mint couldn't care more of what he said. She held her tinted pink cheeks slowly, "Well, that's the truth, Rue.." Rue, getting shocked by Mint's polite reaction, frowned, 'God, she's totally lost it..' The jealousy burnt his chest like hell. That was the first time he saw Mint blushing due to a man, although Ekrah shouldn't be counted as he was only behaving like father to his kids. Since Rue was still immature about understanding his feeling, he got confused of what was happening to him. He shooked his head to get the thought out of his mind.

"_See, I'm right. She's your girl.._"

Rue heard someone whispered in his mind and he knew who. Ekrah was smiling there and it made him almost puke. Ekrah read his mind and his strange feeling about Mint. Mint didn't realize what was going on with Rue and Ekrah, she looked at the two, questioning.

Rue shooked then ducked his red face, "No.." Mint raised her shoulders, confused of Rue's sudden change. "He's a little emotional today, . You know, [relic] has influenced us too much.." Ekrah smiled knowingly. Clueless girl..

"So let me tell you that Valen's mentality was getting worse. He felt one Earth is not enough, he wanted the whole universe under his feet! He found that one [relic] wasn't sufficient. I was feeling guilty after figuring the plan out. I was in a process of completing a doll, and I hate the fact that Valen would use my doll to destroy the world! That was against my mind! You were one step to be a perfect doll when that idea came to me. With my mind controlling ability, I removed your duty to Valen from your memory. I was only hoping that I didn't make monster doll that would help him conquer the whole universe, just like Applesweet did. Never thought that you really prevented him from resurrecting!"

Rue replied Ekrah's proud smile by giving a frank smile. Then he knew why he didn't remember his duty when he woke up 5 years ago. He was proud with Ekrah too, Ekrah is sure a good-hearted magician, so lucky that he was created by him. If he had been made by Applesweet, he wouldn't have met Claire, Klaus, and Mint.. Rue stopped when he saw Mint besides, he blushed a little. He shooked his head unnoticeably to get rid of her from his mind. Luckily, Ekrah didn't find that Rue was blushing only because of seeing his pretty partner.

"Valen, while getting chased by his friends everywhere, conducted new [relic] experiment. He brought me and Applesweet to Ephlesia City-exactly abandoned city named Ekklesia, the Greek word for church, but people misunderstood its name. He left earlier with me back to Valen's fortress, leaving Applesweet with an almost-done [relic]. He did it because Applesweet was his son! He just didn't realize that Applesweet is not a sweet, but sour apple."

"Applesweet didn't figure that it wasn't complete, the Dewprism fragments left for creating dolls were used to make his own dolls army. They tried to steal away the [relic] but it didn't move since Valen brought the last items with him."

"That's riddiculous! Moron.." Mint commented sarcasticly. Rue glanced Mint for a while, saying nothing. He was relieved Mint got back to her normal rudeness. That was better than she became polite after seeing a man's smile.

"It was getting hectic. Athenacius and fellows figured where Valen's fortress was. Aeons, as I told you both, were selfish. Their house was the biggest secret as they kept everything there. Valen told me to stay and maintain the fortress, then he left to bring the last items to Western Desert. There, Applesweet and dolls confronted him, but he defeated them all, except one, a doll named Ruegia escaped."

Mint mumbled, "Rue, Ruecian, Ruenis, Ruegia, what's the next Rue thing? Tch.."

"Valen then sealed the [relic] together with Applesweet, in Ephlesia City. He was disappointed by his son's real intention, but he wasn't able to kill his own flesh and blood. He made it disappear. The only way to break the seal is finding last items of the [relic]."

Rue and Mint who were sitting lazily with dimming eyes, immediately sat upright and their eyes widened.

"What kind of items? Tell me, right now!" Mint ambitiously exclaimed. Rue got startled by her voice.

"Um.. you shouldn't talk that loud.." said Rue, but Mint wouldn't listen to him at the moment.

Ekrah walked toward them, his smile didn't fade away even a bit since hearing to Mint's words.

"So, Princess Mint. You must have learnt about three basic elements in this universe. Since Valen planned for universe conquest, he thought he had to control those elements," Ekrah questioned Mint. Mint flinched and stuttered.

"W-what are you talking about? Ugghh-ungghh-umm.. (Geez, is he talking about liquid, solid, and gas?)" Mint was hesitant to answer. Rue knew the answer, but he didn't want to interfere in Ekrah and Mint's conversation. He is always polite.

"Yes, Mint, that's correct. Why don't you speak to me directly.. Believe in yourself, young princess. That's why your sister is always ahead of you.." Ekrah read her mind and knew what she was thinking. Mint gasped, "Hey! What the [expletive]! Don't ever read my mind anymore!" But, he ignored her since Rue got a question for him. Mint stomped her foot madly and nobody cared about her.

"You know where we can find those items?" Rue asked Ekrah politely, like a son to his father. Ekrah gripped his right shoulder and his voice was really calming.

"Don't worry, Rue. I see that you worry about what Ruecian said to you in your dream.."

Mint nagged furiously, "Stop reading my mind and his!" Mint got up and threatened Ekrah, she didn't mean it exactly.

"I know you didn't mean it, Mint.. Am I right?" Ekrah smiled charmingly to her. Her face blushed since Ekrah knew what she was thinking. Ekrah then focused on Rue again.

"Ruegia, the escaped doll, is looking for the [relic] too. I think, it will be better if we let Mint use it for peaceful world conquest than to let Ruegia release that bastard Applesweet. That's not a matter if we release Applesweet too, I believe we can defeat him." Ekrah nodded to him. He was asking for the agreement sign from Rue.

"..." Rue didn't answer, he hesitated that would be such easy matters.

"Valen didn't tell me how those items look like, he didn't trust me that much. But, he told me they were brought by three most powerful Valen's guardians; Bermoré, Ajzõr, and Magnolia. Bermoré lives in Cave of Darkness at Fire Forest, Ajzör brought one item to Cloudy Oasis, and Magnolia brought the last to Cactus Heaven. And, the wise but mysterious guardian, Essencia is guarding Ephlesia City. He was the most powerful guardian. Valen warned me about Ruegia and told me not to ever let it fall to him. Ruegia came to ask me to join his master, Applesweet, this month-but you must've guessed what I told him. I learn that he's been gathering information all this time," Ekrah explained everything. His smiling face changed into a hint of anxiety and fear. He walked away, his back against the teenagers' sight. Rue nodded to Mint, he got up and pull out the Arc Edge with a terrific rotating-blade style, just like in Wylaf scene at Raging Mountain when he was begging for wings.

SLASH!

"Don't worry, Ekrah, I've made up my mind. We'll make it," said Rue calmly without any hesitation. He was standing up spunkily like a true warrior. The yellow band on his hat was moving wavey. Ekrah turned around and smiled, "I believe in you, my Son.."

Mint couldn't get up off the seat. She stared at the two without blinking, especially Rue.

"What was that? His style pulling out the Arc Edge was too cool to handle.." Mint whispered to herself. She really lost it. Rue felt something strange behind him and realized that Mint was staring at him.

"What's wrong, Mint? Are you okay?"

Ekrah laughed. Mint gasped, she knew that Ekrah did it again. Mind-reading stuffs.

"Don't tell him!" Mint shrieked and ran toward Ekrah. Sweat was formed on her forehead as she ran. Rue, standing between Mint and Ekrah, frowned and showed real confusion in his face. He did asking-like motion by raising the eyebrows to Ekrah, but Ekrah swung his hand and said, "Nothing, Rue. She was just a little...surprised."

At night, the [relic] team gathered at Ekrah's home. He didn't think it was necessary to hide his house since he got nothing special there. The house was made from blackened woods-that woods were taken from the forest where Rue and Mint ever passed-since Ekrah knew that kind of wood were strangely waterproof. The window was framed by rather moldy red wood, nobody could see through the thick dust all over the glass. Dead flowers lined along the entrance to the house, other withered decorating plants were hung irregularly at the terrace.

Mint nudged at Rue's rib, causing the owner growled in pain.

"After the [relic] hunt's over, you should come back here and redecorate this. He has a terrible taste! Your weird taste is better."

"It should be a compliment from you.."

"No, stupid doll.. It wasn't a compliment, I was mocking you. See, your sense of humor is weird too!"

Narcius was walking behind Klaus and Mira, whistling happily after a tiring day of baby sitting Elena and Prima. At least, finally he could enjoy the night without foolish questions from Elena and noisy whine from Prima. He really wondered maybe Klaus and Mira actually found baby Elena somewhere and adopted her. They were such different personalities.

They walked into the house and Ekrah told them to enjoy and take a seat. The house didn't have usual corridor to connect the front door with the other room. They passed the front door directly to a cozy living room. All furnitures were old, vintage, and dull, but that suited the house and the owner. A coffee table was placed between two classy sofas covered by dark blue velvet. Some pots for making magic potions were placed at the corner of the room, it looked like they had been untouched for such a long time. The room's lighting was from a big oldy candellier at the center of carved ceiling. Mint, Rue, and Narcius sat on the left sofa while Klaus and Mira sat on the other. Rue sat between Mint and Narcius, avoiding any possible arguments of the two. Ekrah came back there and sat on a comfy chair between the sofas.

So, there they were, discussing about what to do next. Klaus' and Mira's ability in reading ancient literature would be useful in Cloudy Oasis, where Ajzör- the poetic and Maze Master guardian- lived. Ekrah was old enough and he knew much how to speak in ancient language, but Ajzör would speak in a sophisticated way and he was not that good in understanding the guardian. So, Ekrah, Klaus, and Mira would go to Cloudy Oasis while Rue, Mint, and Narcius would face the hot-headed Bermorè in Fire Forest. Ajzör, as told before, was a center of language and tricking mind, they didn't have to focus on their strength to face him. The maze would be a major pain in the neck since it was full of poetic directions and traps. Besides, as always, monsters were wandering around the maze. Bermoré was not that clever, but that didn't mean he was easy. They just had different special abilities. One more thing got in their way, they didn't know how the items looked like.

After concluding the meeting, Ekrah invited them to sleep over for the rest of the journey. He brought them into another part of the house, letting everybody get surprised by the proportion of the hall they saw before them to the house. It was large, as large as a football field. So, the small creepy house they saw outside was just a perfect disguise.

Mint cursed at her sight. Her mouth opened stupidly like a mannequin. Ekrah smiled and said.

"Don't ever let something trick your mind, Mint."

To be continued-

Alright, I think I will write about the journey in next chapter.. Hee-hee.. Everybody, please review my story and check my grammar.. ^^


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5.. ^^ Happy reading..

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Mint, Rue, and Narcius just left the gate of Lacquer. They were leaving for Fire Forest, a place where they'd find one item needed to unlock the seal of Ephlesia City. Mint wore a brown sleeveless t-shirt and half-thigh black leather pants. She could imagine how hot the forest would be since its name was Fire Forest. Maybe it could burn too, literally. Rue didn't change his ordinary outfit, he thought that if he wore something more open, he might be dehydrated. Narcius felt comfortable wearing his long leather coat, he said his coat was his identity. Once he said that, Mint threw his face with her backpack~that backpack was as heavy as one of Blowup Rocks, while just three Blowup Rocks could break a boulder in Raging Mountain.

They walked by following the map given by Ekrah. Ekrah himself, Klaus, and Mira had left in the early morning since the journey to Cloudy Oasis was as confusing as Ajzör, lots of twists and bends. Although Ekrah told them that their journey wouldn't be confusing, Rue and fellows found out that interpreting map was tough. Ekrah created that map very very long time ago! And hundreds of years after the creation, the condition was so much different. A small river drawn in the map was already dry and flat~flat as if there hadn't been a river. Fortunately, Rue figured out the stones lying on the ground were typically river stones. The problems didn't stop when they arrived at a large grass field where everything was grass as high as adult men's chest all over the place. Mint cursed more than yesterday, heating the situation and making everybody in a bad state of mood. She was the shortest among them and almost could see nothing but grass. She blamed Narcius's age, she said he was too old, that explained why he was the tallest of the three.

Rue was leading through the grass field. He gripped his Arc Edge tightly and dragged it along the cracked ground, leaving a harsh line behind him wherever he walked. His hand was sweaty, the Arc Edge became a little slippery The ribbons bound to his hat hung weakly as there wasn't any wind. Up in the sky, the sun shone brightly, maybe if it had been alive, it would've laugh at them and Mint would have jumpkicked the sun at the face.

Suddenly they heard heavy growl and scratches. Mint stood steadily, ready to shoot magic. They were waiting something came out from the grass, but nothing appeared. Mint put down her Dual Haloes, frowned tiredly. Narcius couldn't be patient anymore, he stomped his right food then he blew up the ground two meters ahead~where the sound might be from. Mint shrieked in surprise, she was standing in front of Narcius, so she didn't see what he did.

"Hey, [expletive]! You almost gave me heart attack!" Mint turned her head and yelled furiously. Narcius raised his shoulder, Rue thought that Narcius was gonna apologize to Mint, but..

"Shut up, crazy witch! I just saved your filthy mouth from a monster!" Narcius shouted angrily at Mint. Rue rolled his eyes and sighed, "Not again..."

"What did you just say? Crazy? You are the insane thing!" Mint took some steps toward Narcius, she was about to punch him badly. Just one centimeter left before Mint's hand reaching Narcius's nose when suddenly Rue jumped and..

BANG! BANG!

Rue hacked a creature with some good slashes. The sound of steel hitting that stone thing mixed with its scary growl. Mint stood rotating both rings, ready to cast spell to help Rue eliminating that monster, but Narcius blew up the thing earlier. Black smoke was formed around the monster. Rue was sitting on the ground, he was thrown by the explosion.

"Now, you both must thank me for saving your ugly butts!" Narcius laughed proudly. Rue shooked his head in fear.

"You made it worse, Narcius.."

Behind the smoke, something which was 3 meters high stood up and roared deafening their ears. It was black, made from stone and it had lots of sharp edges, one big topaz-like eye were centrally placed on something which might be a face. That monster was definitely living irregular-shaped stone! Now, they understood that fire and explosion simply made it bigger. It was the creature of Western Desert, it loved heat! Rue was going to hack it hard with his weapon again, but Mint stopped him. She rotated her rings again, it made a noisy creaky sound when the rings revolved on each other.

"_Iactus ipsum _!" The rings shine brighter, and brighter, and brighter. They heard something crack from the sky, then big sharp bluish icicles fell like raindrops. Ten icicles hitted it badly until it collapsed to the ground. It shattered into sparkling dusts and practically gone, leaving a purple circle of light. The monsters were made from magic, when they died, they'd leave their essential magic. Magician or any magical creature could use it to heal the wound or getting addition energy. Mint touched the light and it was absorbed into Mint's fingers. She glowed purple for some seconds, then she felt so refreshed.

"Tch! Now that I'm useless! Aarrggghhhh!" Narcius yelled out and kicked a stone. He kicked a big one and hurt himself. He made 'ouch ouch' sound and jumped around.

"..." Rue calmly stared at fury Narcius. He turned to look at laughing Mint, she was satisfied enough to see Narcius ail.

"What? It's funny to see! Is that wrong?" Mint complained on Rue's gaze.

"Thank you, Mint." He uttered his gratitude, short and meaningful. Mint suddenly blushed, she looked away to hide it.

"D-don't mention it! I did it for the sake of my safety!" Mint denied. Rue just smiled, he raised his shoulders and walked away.

"I know you'd say stuffs like that," said Rue calmly, slowly walking towards Narcius.

After more stone monsters attacked them, they finally found the right path. The three just walked until they met a wide rapidly-flowing river. The water was low, however they couldn't walk through that river. Mint desperately sat on the ground. Her pigtails touched the ground weakly as she ducked her head as low as she could. Narcius squatted beside Mint, letting a tired sigh. They were sweaty, stinky, and angry. It was almost 1 pm, the sun was at its hottest point.

"Don't worry.. We'll cross this." Rue patted on Mint's shoulder. A bright pink flash swirled around Rue, he changed into Stone-they named the stone monster that way, simple and easy to remember. Narcius yawned. Stone originally was only 30 cm without getting addition heat. How could a small ignorable creature cross that wide river!

"Now, Man.. You're giving us a bad parody show!" Narcius kicked sand to a now small Rue. Rue accidently swallowed the sand and coughed. Mint crawled to a coughing Rue and brought him into a hug. She treated him like a susceptible baby, giving lovely pats on his back. Not really like a baby, it was more like a pet. A pet made from stone?

"So cruel, Narcius.. He's a small creature now, for God's sake! What a [expletive] human you are.." Mint lifted Rue above her head. Rue scratched wildly in the air. He squeaked in disagreement of what Mint was doing, he tried to tell Mint but he was shy. "Poor little monster.." Mint swung him aside and hugged him again, it was hugging-the-dog style.

Narcius frowned, "Mint? Do you realize what you're doing?"

"Shut up, Porcupine Narcie.. UNGHH!" Mint held her head where Narcius gave a good hit, the other hand still touched Rue's head.

"Mint, that stone monster is Rue! Rue is a man, don't hug him that tight! Do you catch what I mean..?" Narcius resisted the funny feeling in his chest. Mint stared at him blankly, she was thinking. 'Yeah, Rue's a man. So what? So what if I hug..AAAAHHH!' Mint suddenly threw Rue to the ground. She bit her fingers nervously, her face was beet red.

"Sorry, Rue.. I forgot.. Uh-oh, do I hurt you?" Mint asked, she gave her hands to help but Rue shooked his head. If he had been in a doll form, his face would have been so much redder than Mint. He was completely touched and hugged by Mint! Her skin was so smooth gliding on his rough stone skin, she touched him wholeheartedly. He felt her warmness, he completely lost his mind that moment. 'Ugghh.. Why does my stomach tickle this hard..' Rue gulped his saliva.

Narcius stomped his right foot and the ground under Rue blew up. Rue was surprised, but soon relieved because Narcius had got what Rue was planning. Rue felt his body swelling as its reaction to the explosion, it was growing or whatever, he was getting bigger. He reached 1,5 meters height. Rue gave a sign to Narcius to explode him again. After another tap, Rue reached the height of 3 meters. And that was how they crossed the wild river safely.

Another 1 hour walk without any monsters attacking. They finally arrived at a gate. Not really a gate literally, but it might be a gate some times ago. It was ruins of a gate. They were destroyed, but something strange was they lined perfectly. Did Behemoré just symbolize how he would punch to pieces anyone disturbing him?

"Should we try this? Should we walk in?" Mint asked a little afraid. Narcius just stood there, he focused his eyes on something that might be there. But, everywhere was trees. Huge, typical, and tall trees. Narcius tried to see the peak of those trees but he couldn't see anything.

"... Of course," Rue walked into the forest. His shoes made a weird sound, it echoed everytime he walked. Narcius frowned and he followed Rue into the deepness of the forest.

"H-hey! Are you leaving a princess alone? " Mint chased the two. Narcius slipped his tongue out and pulled the lower corner of his left eye. Right after Mint passing the ruins, the ground shaked. There, the lining stones from the ruins, flew to the air. Mint stared at those stones blankly, she didn't move anywhere. The ground shaked harder. Rue and Narcius pulled the stupefied Mint away as they thought the stones would attack her. But, those stones didn't attack them, they moved involuntarily forming a complete gate again. That gate surrounded the whole forest. The gate might be made from magic.

"What the heck? The forest is locking us here!" Narcius yelled, pointing madly at the gate. He scratched his head desperately and groaned in disappointment. He disliked all types of problems.

"_One who enters shall not be back._." Rue whispered reading the letters carved on the solid gate. Mint shivered heavily. She still held Rue's arm, her eyes opened wide.

"Let's finish this stupid forest quickly.." Mint mumbled. She stood up, swept the dirt from her pants. Rue was guessing what she was going to do. She turned to face the forest and held up one Dual Halo to a direction where as if someone had been there.

"Now, you hear me, stupid [expletive] forest! You dare to lock us here? Lock ME here? You know whatcha gonna get? A good slices to your woods here would be nice!"

Mint's voice echoed as if the forest had copied her words. Rue sighed. He should've known that Mint wouldn't do something wise. But, suddenly he heard something. It was.. It was like someone shrieking. An ugly high-pitched voice was screaming like a monster baby.

The forest became quiet again. It was just ten seconds break until they heard something buzzing from the forest. Mint rotated her rings, light shone from that things. She was ready to do the spells. Finally, they saw hundreds of men flying like bees toward them.

Those creatures had numerous eyes in their face, they were bee-winged, lichen-like skin colour, and long slim spikes all over their body. They screamed their anger, all of them pointed on Mint.

"IMPOLITE HUMAN!" Then suddenly the creatures released lots of spikes from the bodies. Mint casted her spell, "_Ventus typhoon._.!" Whirlwind burst from her rings, buzzing as well, brought some spikes away. But, the typhoon didn't compare the amount of their spikes. Mint got no choice, except using her ultimate spell.

"_Cosmos, tenent claustra! _" the spell hold a barrier around her. Still, the creatures grew more spikes and shooted more spikes. Monsters with regenerating ability was a nightmare. Her barrier began to crack little by little and she was getting exhausted of holding the barrier. Her energy was drained by this spell. She couldn't hold it anymore, she was about to release the fire.

"_Cosmos, at ig-_-AAAHHH!" The barrier broke before being released with another spell. She fell to the ground silently and closed her eyes. She was ready to accept the spikes and felt how it'd hurt. But, nothing happened. She slowly opened her eyes and saw something big and black before her. It was Rue in Stone form. Tear flowing down her cheeks, the relief made her cry.

Narcius dragged her away from Rue, he began bombing Rue until Stone reached 7 meters height. Stone screamed and the sound made the ground shake badly, he swung his black hand to a bunch of the flying creatures-some of them thrown, hit the trees, and form a small pile of fainted monsters. Narcius summoned some big spiky pendulums which swung the other creatures.

"Shhiit! What are these ugly things! Mint! Don't just sit on your lazy ugly butts there! Cast some speelllss..!" Narcius tapped his feet, he was like shuffling. Any creature approaching would explode. The lucky thing was they didn't grow bigger due to explosion. At least, for then, Narcius was useful with his traps.

BOOM! BOOM! CRACKK! BOOOOMMMM! The forest was fulfilled with black smoke and burnt smell.

Mint nodded, she stood up and joined the party. The creatures now sprayed fire from their mouth-now Mint realized why this forest was called Fire Forest since the occupants could throw up some fire balls out of their mouths. The Dual Haloes revolved quickly and its shine blinded the creatures' eyes.

"_Pluvios guttas!_ _Pluvios guttas! Pluvios guttas,_ you [expletive] dammit monsters!" plenty magical raindrops created from her rings to those creatures, put away their fire, and hurt them. The creatures couldn't fight anymore, they finally flew back into the forest and gone.

Pink flash swirled around Stone and it changed back into Rue. His skin was dirty and some spikes pierced there. Blood spots formed around the spikes. Although he was hurt, he didn't care about it.

"Are you guys okay? Ugghh.." Rue plucked a spike and groaned in pain. A silvery 15 cm spike, looked rather a needle, was tinted blood along a half of it.

"Damn.. Is it toxic?" Narcius plucked one carelessly. Rue let out a painful sigh when Narcius did it.

"Ekrah didn't tell me about toxic. But, I hope not.. Some of the spikes pierced my skin. Ughh.. They were the occupants of this forest, called as Alato. They actually disliked impolite visitors. I think, they heard your curses, Mint.." Rue glanced at Mint. Mint curled her lips. She hurt everybody because of her rude language, especially Rue. She didn't know how, but she never wanted to put Rue in troubles. Though she knew all she could bring was troubles..

"Dirty Mouth, from now on, stop speaking fouls! Why don't you behave like Her Majesty, Princess Maya? See? See? You see with your dammit eyes! You brought us into troubles!" Narcius angrily yelled at Mint. Rue didn't defend her, he was annoyed too. He was the one that got hurt worst among them, while he didn't even know whether the spike was toxic or not.

Mint stood up and yelled back, "What! I didn't know they'd act so stupid! Don't you dare comparing me to Maya! Geez!"

"Mint, you did make mistakes.. Why don't you just apologize and stop acting as if you did nothing? You never care others' feelings, you are selfish, and you always think you're right! I wish I didn't save you before.." said Rue in such a cold tone, strangely annoyed. Mint froze. If Narcius had said that, she wouldn't have cared about it. But, Rue? She always considered him as the best partner and she'd help him whatever happened. And then, he mentioned her as a selfish and heartless person? Did he realize his words?

"D-did you just regret of saving me? Geez.. FINE! From n-now on, don't ever act like a hero to me! I won't save you either if something happens! YOU GOT THAT!" Mint yelled at Rue. Rue ignored her, he looked far away into the forest before him.

"Let's keep moving, " He glared at Mint and just walked away. At the moment, he didn't care whether the others followed him or not. His head was contented by unexplainable anger. Narcius didn't want the silly argue broke the journey, so he grabbed Mint's left arm to follow Rue. Mint objected him, but for once in a lifetime, Narcius begged her.

"Hey, come on! Have you forgot about your world domination? So, let's follow him and get moving! This is a dangerous place, we have to stick together, got it?" Narcius explained. Mint seemed to ignore him since she just stared at the ground. But, when Narcius once again dragged her forward, she didn't do anything to prevent him.

Rue, as always, was leading the journey. They were walking accross a damp swamp when something suddenly bursted fire to them. It was the Alatos again~they were around 7 to 10 Alatos. They shrieked madly, all eyes cried tears. Mint closed her ears, she couldn't move Dual Haloes. She didn't get why the monsters cried like that.

"IMPOLITE HUMAN! FILTHY FEET ON OUR SWAMP!" they screamed together in a stupid choir. Suddenly they flew very quickly in irregular motions and formed a good typhoon. Alatos shot their spikes from the circling wind, not just ordinary spikes, but spikes burnt in fire.

Rue tried to swing as much as he could when he heard Mint screamed in pain. He couldn't help the worry in his mind, questioned about her, but he was too ashamed to call her name after the quarrel ago. But, that dammit typhoon blocked the sight, he even barely stood on the ground. He heard the explosions and Alatos screaming right behind him, something fell to the ground. Rue swung his Arc Edge and felt his weapon hit two or threes flying Alatos. Those monsters were thrown out of the typhoon and so the whirlwind disappeared.

Rue turned around and saw Mint was sitting on a big stone, holding her bloody left arm. It was about twenty needle-spikes planted deeply in close locations at her skin.

"Mint!" Rue ran accross the swamp that was as high as his knees. Mint was panting, she couldn't move her arm. She began to cry as the spikes moved deeper even with the slightest move. He could see that she got burnt in several parts of her clothes and skin, but he thought she could handle the tiny burnt wounds.

"What should we do? Man.. Dammit!" Narcius held his messy head frustratedly, he was standing on a stone next to Mint and Rue. Everybody was afraid too remove the spikes since they were too many in close spots. Rue frowned worrily. Mint just sighed and sighed, even breathing could make the spikes move and hurt more.

"[EXPL-"

"Hush, Mint.. Don't curse.." Rue held her hand, he was trying to comfort her. Mint shooked her head, her body movement while cursing hurt her due to the spikes followed her movement. His hand made the wound less painful, she was relieved that he didn't avoid her.

"We have to pick the needles," said Rue, he could hear hesitation in his own voice. He knew it would cause her suffer in a great pain, but the wound would be easily handled if any foreign bodies were removed. Narcius stared at him in disbelief.

"Are you sick! She'll be dying in pain if you pluck it one by one!" Narcius yelled at him.

"Then, we just let her cry until these spikes reaches her bone or she gets infected by this dirty swamp! You want it?"

Narcius were silent, he still disliked the idea but couldn't argue the bad possibilities if they didn't remove those spikes away. Mint was still crying muffledly, those things hurt her really bad. Blood dripped draining her tanned skin, down to the stone, and the swamp.

"Okay! But you do that stuff!" Narcius gave up. Rue nodded. "That's fine with me.."

Rue then focused at the sobbing Mint.

"Alright, Mint. I'll pluck these spikes. I know it'll hurt you, I'm not in revenge or anything, so you'd better be relax, okay?" said Rue in a patient tone. Mint nodded in almost unseenable movement.

Rue moved his shaky hand reaching one spike. Narcius tensedly watched Rue, he didn't even give a blink. Mint looked away to Narcius, she didn't want to see the process since it would just make her stressed. Although her arm hurt, she still found the expression in Narcius's face funny.

"Porcupine, are you afraid, littl- OUCH!" she suddenly yelled in pain.

"That's what you get from trying to goof on me.." Narcius squinted his eye and grinned, got satisfied. But, he stopped grinning when Mint cried again- Rue had pulled out more spikes. 'That's it! I couldn't see a girl cry in front of me..' he sputtered, being annoyed of his silly weakness. He remembered when Elena or Kirielle cried, he couldn't help it too.

"Sshh! Don't cry, brat! Your tears don't suit your filthy mouth! Hee-hee.." Narcius was trying to entertain her, but Mint now made 'ouch ouch' sound. She cried more tears, still muffled.

"Uhuhu.. Ouch! Unngghh.. Ouch!" Mint ducked her head. Narcius couldn't stand her cries, so he stood up with his back against the other two.

Twenty minutes later, the three continued their journey again to find Cave of Darkness~ Mint had recovered from her injury by using the Restore Health spell aka healing spell. They got no map for this Fire Forest, even Ekrah never went too far into this place. It was just fifty meters after the swamp, many Alatos and new type of monsters they had never seen appeared again. Rue remembered, Ekrah described that monster as Grendoa, pure white coloured gargoyle-like monster but it had three black horns at the forehead and one long dropped tongue. Grendoa could gulped its enemy like a snake with its tongue and it had lightning power.

"Why are these Alatos keep coming!" Mint complained furiously. She felt her wound make some beats for being close to its creator. Narcius groaned in boring tone when the Alatos shrieked like a monster babies.

"Alright! I know you are gonna scream 'IMPOLITE HUMAN! YOUR FILTHY FEET CAN'T KICK OUR STUPID BUTTS! Stop screaming, you're all ugly like her!" Narcius used that chance to scold Mint. Mint stomped her right foot.

"You'll got my Blowup Rocks after I take care of these [expletive] dammit things!" Mint pointed on Narcius.

"Mint, that monster can gulp its enemy and strike lightning. Be careful with your Raindrops spell.." Rue reminded Mint. Mint nodded, "Don't worry. My mouth is bigger than its mouth, I can gulp them in no time!" By the moment Mint said 'time', Alatos released their spikes and fire balls. Rue jumped, he slashed one Alato and he jumpkicked two nearby Alatos. Two Grendoas stucked out their whitish slimey tongue to catch Rue. Rue jumped some steps backward, but Grendoa seemed to have 5 meters length tongue. He finally hacked it really good, the tongues dropped from Grendoa's mouth and writhed. Rue sighed in relief, but the feeling disappeared once he saw those tongues creeped disgustingly over the ground. Grendoas, who owned them, joined their tongues and chased Rue enthusiatically.

"No way!" Rue growled and shooked his head for many times that day. He never saw such insisted monsters.

"Rue, kill those gargoyles! It controls the tongue! Hey! [Expletive] [expletive]! Eat this! Eat this! How dare you biting my boot!" Mint screamed from the other part, she then repeatedly kicked one lying Alato, which bit her left boot desperately a moment ago. Rue gave three hacks to the attacking Grendoas. Once they died, they shattered to pieces and left the Magics. Rue touched their Magics and regained the energy.

"Ferros triplex! Ferros triplex! Ferros triplex! Eat those blades, gargoyles!" Mint casted Triple Blades to three Grendoa which were running to Mint. They got cutted and died terribly. She sensed something move behind her, she turned around and saw five Alatos flew as quickly as lightning to her.

"Mortifera impetum!" Mint changed into sparkly black and ran towards the Alatos. Those Alatos got her deadly dash directly and screamed loudly and met the doom. She heard 'BOOM!' from the corner. Mint observed that Narcius was madly cursing and stomping. Spikey balls fell and explosions happened around him, attacked every approaching Alato and Grendoa to their death. His hair was covered with white slime, at the end of his hair, the slime liquefies into some white drops that dripped to his favorite long leather coat. Mint let out a loud groan seeing the slime, she thanked God for saving her from that disgusting liquid.

"AAAKKHH!" Mint turned to where the voice came from and found Rue being feet-gulped by a greedy Grendoa when the other Grendoa tried to swallow his arms. Fortunately, Grendoa didn't have even a tooth, so they just chewed Rue with their gums. White slimes bursted like a waterfall from its mouth while processing to swallow Rue's feet. Mint furiously ran toward the Grendoas and casted Drop Ice spell. Three icicles easily killed that monster. Rue was lying in a stupid position and crazily panting. His face was sticky and slimey, while his hair looked in a so much mess.

"Eeyucck! I'm not gonna touch that slime!" Mint exclaimed. Narcius was screaming in frustration before them, three Grendoas chased him around with their evil tongues and many lightnings.

"DAAAMMMMNNNNN! GET AWAY FROM ME, DAMMIT SHITS! WHOA!" He tripped over a branch and fell down like a tree. Mint shooked her head seeing two men in front of her, nobody seemed in a better condition one another.

"You think your silly lightning is a big time? Now swallow this Big Burst! MAGNI LITNOS!" high-voltage lightning roared right at the Grendoas. They were frozen for seconds, all were black, then fell down at the same time. Suddenly, some fire balls passed closely to her face, madly Mint turned to see two Alatos rapidly shot the balls. "Pluvios guttas!" One spell stopped the Alato and, "Magni litnos!" A big lightning burst burnt the poor Alato in no time. Mint proudly blew her fingers like a gun and whispered, "Perfect.."

They finally got rid of those monsters~they were about 30 monsters. Rue got up by himself~the last Grendoa tried to swallow him again and Narcius finally exploded the monster. He almost slipped several times over a pool of slime. Mint was not that mean to let Rue really slip, she grabbed his slimey hands and brought him to a dry ground. Rue wiped his face with his own clothes but it got worse since his clothes covered with so much slime. Mint unconciously wiped his face with her free-slime bare hand~she was sleeveless, if she had been wearing one, she would've used it. Rue, on the other hand, realized what Mint was doing and froze. 'Does she realize? Um.. it's like she's caressing my face. Why does my stomach spark like this?' But, Rue couldn't turn his head away, he just couldn't. He enjoyed her soft hand touching him and staring at her serious face, though he didn't know why he had that feeling. He was 'too-dolly' to know that he had a special interest at Mint.

"Now what! My hands are all dirty!" Mint complained. She didn't realize what she had done till the end. She did that stuff purely as a good partner.

"..." Rue didn't say a thing, he did hate losing her touch.

Narcius just got up from where he lied and didn't see what was going on. He cursed for finding he was covered with slime, unfortunately nobody helped him to clean it up. Narcius gave some silly complaints about the Grendoa and Alatos and got shooking-head response from Mint.

"Next time, they come, we'd better run away. We don't have time to face them all, they are too many. I'm afraid we'll get stuck here too long or Ruegia got the item earlier than us," said Rue.

"That's coward. But, I think you're right.." Mint raised her shoulders.

Narcius complained again, "Tch! After getting the item, I'll spank those dumbheads really bad!"

"You're the one who's gonna get spanked by Mommy Alato, Little Narcy.. It will be a lovely show, I'd love to laugh at you! BWAHA-HA-HA-HA-HA!" Mint laughed cynically.

"Alright, it will be better to run or we're gonna be too late-"

"Stop where you are, dumbheads!"

Mint, Rue, Narcius found a girl standing on one big branch nearby. She was blonde, tall, and carrying a silver coloured metal board. She wore something like green tanktop, black leather cardigan, and red hotpants behind a piece of black chiffon clothe wrapped to her waist. Mint frowned in confusion after seeing her shoes, it was a glamour 12 cm high heels usually worn in a party. Narcius was clearly disappointed when he figured out that she didn't wear mini skirt.

"Damn! I never see such good legs! So slim and sexy.." Narcius almost drooled, only by looking at the girl's legs. Rue, on the other hand, thought that she was rather underweight~too slim for his girl type. He had opinion that Mint was better than her, in objective perception.

"Hey, pervert porcupine boy! These sexy and slim legs will kick your perverted mouth off! Shut up!" She yelled in a deep heavy voice. Her hair was tied into two beautiful buns with two long red ribbons each bun. Her face reminded Mint on someone, but she wasn't sure.

"Hey, party girl, this is not a place for a cheap girl like you! Go home before something hurts your ugly skin!" said Mint provocatively. Narcius mumbled, "Mint, you're the only one who's ugly here.. Tch!" The girl seemed ignoring Mint and Narcius, she was more attracted to the quiet Rue.

"Hello, handsome~.. I'm so sorry I called you 'dumbhead'. What's your name, sweety?" That girl flirted on Rue, but he was just showing a plain face.

"It's Rue."

"Oh, really? That's the coolest name I ever heard.. Hee-hee-hee!" She giggled in a horrible flirting voice. That blonde grabbed open the cleavage of her chiffon clothe and showed her fair and silky skin to getting any attention from Rue. She didn't know Rue was not really a normal human boy, he indeed was a normal doll boy. He didn't think those unknown girl's legs would be sexy in his eyes.

"Why don't you join me and leave your two fruitcake fellas? We're gonna have a good night together.. Huuh?" She sighed sexily. She leaned on the tree, her pose was too hot to handle for a normal man. Narcius was nosebleeding when Rue just blinked his eyes innocently and wondered what was that girl doing. The blonde thought Rue blinked that way for seeing her gorgeous charm.

While Mint watched everything in front of her eyes with bumping heart. Mint's face was red, she couldn't stand hearing the last sentence from the blonde. A good night together? What was that stupid phrase supposed to mean? She imagined if Rue had a..good..night..UGH! She'd kill Rue if he finally got lured by her stupid cheapo seductive acts!

"HEEEEYYY, [EXPLETIVE]! Don't YOU [EXPLETIVE] [EXPLETIVE] dare SEDUCING him with your dammit mouth! Or, I'll stab you in the heart, rip your [EXPLETIVE] dirty chest, and eat your heart without drinking any drip of water!" Mint couldn't resist her anger anymore. She stomped her left foot rapidly, her aura was really bad. Narcius dropped his sweat.

"Rue, who's this ugly rude girl? How could you stand her awful temperament? HA-HA-HA-HA!" the blonde laughed, mocking Mint. Rue frowned, he didn't like her attitude.

"She's not ugly. She's my partner and I'm proud to have her as a partner," said Rue in such a colder tone than before. Mint was paralyzed. She never guessed Rue would say the stuffs. 'He said he's proud to know me? R-really?' Mint stared at the ground, strangely stopped every motion.

"Hey, Blonde.. Who's your name, baby?" Narcius, clearly out of the topic, gave the coolest expression he ever had. The blonde girl laughed, underestimating him, or maybe everybody there. Her red ribbons wave wildly since the wind there was kind of hard. Mint really wanted to see the wind blow her down to the ground.

"Alright, I'll tell you and you will remember my name for the rest of your pathetic life-except Rue, I'm not done with you, baby.. I am Bella, the greatest treasure hunter and I'll get every treasure in this world! And I'm gonna get this [relic] and my sister will pay what she's done to me! BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!" she placed her fists at the hips and laughed evilly, almost similar to the way Mint laughed every time mentioning about world domination plan. Narcius mumbled, "Ugh.. She's just as insane as one spoiled 'PRINCESS' I ever met.." Narcius glanced Mint. Mint heard him and gave a good wild pinch at the cheek. Narcius finally freed himself after his cheek got as red as cherry.

"Are you Belle's sister?" Rue suddenly talked.

"Whoa! How could you know that devil?" Bella yelled at Rue. Mint shooked her head knowingly, "Another sisterhood stories, just like Maya and me.."

"She helped us to get Dewprism. Your sister is a kind person-"

"That old hag is not kind!" Mint and Bella yelled together at Rue.

"See.. The same insanity!" Narcius smirked. Rue agreed with Narcius.

"Alright, Belle's sister, kiddy Bella! We don't want to hurt you or hear any whine! We have to continue the [relic] hunt, so you better get away from our way or I'll jumpkick your face! C'mon Rue, Narcius!" Mint arrogantly walked away. Narcius raised his shoulders, Rue did the same, and they followed Mint from behind.

"Hey! Where are you going! Don't you underestimate me!" Bella flipped her silver board to the air. It buzzed loudly at the time she jumped on it, the board transformed in a weird way into something which was wrapping Bella. It formed metallic helmet around her head and a small cabin fitted to one person only. The left and right sides elongate gradually and finally built two strong robotic hands, downward it formed body and feet. What surprised Mint, Rue, and Narcius was the robot's height around 7 meters above the ground.

"Dammit.. Hexagon looks so stupid compared to this machine.." Mint looked up to the sky idiotly. Rue and Narcius couldn't even say a word.

"Now, meet your doom and I'll get the item from Bermoré! Nobody underestimates me! HA HA HA HA HA!" Bella laughed sarcasticly, that machine sounded loudly and it opened a square at the center of its body, showing out amazing automatic guns. The guns began rotating quickly and..

"RUN! SPLIT!" Mint screamed in fear, and so the three ran wherever their feet brought them. The guns shot madly, while at the top of it, Bella laughed in devilish voice. Mint tried to hide behind the biggest three, she was exhausted from running too fast and couldn't catch a breath. She didn't know where Rue and Narcius were, all she heard was the buzz and shooting sound effect. Her feet shivered badly, she thought she could pee there if she didn't remember her pride.

!

Rue hid behind a tree next to the other tree where Narcius stood hiding himself from the mad blonde too. They both panted, the difference was Narcius never stopped cursing.

"This blonde is stupid! No, she's INSANE! Ugghh.. Dammit!" Narcius touched his left hand. Blood drained from his hand to the ground. One bullet passed too close and sliced his skin when he ran away.

"Hey, you're bleeding!" Rue whispered in surprise.

"Ain't a big deal! I'm not that weak!" Narcius exclaimed. Rue put his index finger at the lips.

"SSSHHH! She will hear you! Now, where's Mint?" Rue turned around to find Mint between the trees, but he didn't find her.

"How's that! How's that! HOW'S THAT, EVERYOONNNEE..? You're just the same with Belle, underestimating me in every way! GYA HA HA HA HA HA HA!" Bella's riddiculous laugh spread to the whole Fire Forest. From far away, the Alatos replied her by shrieking.

'This kid is sick! She's obsessed with underestimation stuffs!' thought Mint, the ground around her got shot and became scarred everywhere. Mint shuddered, she imagined if the bullets were shot to her.

Maybe more than 50 bullets/second were released by those guns since there were a bunch of guns in that square. Mint panted like she wouldn't breathe the next day. She almost cried. This Bella girl was totally nuts! Belle might think it was the biggest catastrophe to have an obsessed sister like Bella.

Mint's panic was not over yet, when fire balls were shot and lots of big branches got cut everywhere. Mint tried not to scream, if she screamed, Bella would find her and it didn't mean good. A big branch suddenly hit Mint in such high speed right at her stomach. Mint was thrown 2 meters away and almost fainted. She was dizzy, her belly was so much hurt as if the branch had really sliced it. She was lying there, giving up her presence to the crazy-and-obsessed treasure hunter.

"Isn't Mint? What is she doing under that biggy branch?" asked Narcius stupidly. Rue shooked his head.

"No way! That branch must have hit her! Bella's gonna crushed her with the robot!"

"Damn, I hate problems!" Narcius stomped his foot. He began following Mint's behaviour. But, Rue got an idea from his movement.

"There you are, ugly little girl. Now, accept the destiny brought by my bullets! HEE-HEE-HEE-HEE! DIE!" Bella controlled her robot to face Mint. Mint hardly saw the automatic guns began to rotate slowly, then faster, faster, faster, and finally shone brightly-it was ready to shoot.

Then, there were huge spiky balls raining from the sky, all targetting to hit Bella's robot. Mint heard a scream from inside the big machine when the balls keep falling down and gave bad damages to it. Shortly after, the robot made a loud noise as it collapsed to the ground.

"Mint! No.. Could you hear me?" she heard some steps approaching her. Everything was quiet, it seemed like Bella were really defeated. Mint gasped and let out painful scream when Rue tried to lift her. She panted again, holding in such stabbing pain around her stomach. She could feel the sweat formed on her face and hand palms, it was the second time she got injured that day and the fact was annoying her.

"No.. Please.. I'm sorry, I should've been around you.. Should've protected you.. Ughh.." Rue begged, he was nearly sobbing. Mint could hear other steps getting closer to where she lied.

"C'mon, Rue.. She's gonna be okay. I'm su-"

Mint suddenly felt such worse pain than before attacking, then she coughed blood. She tasted rusty steel in her mouth and she was gonna vomit from tasting it. Her head was spinning quickly and the sight became divided into pieces. Mint hardly breathed, she wasn't able to raise her hands and rotate the rings to heal her wound with Cosmos effect spell. She feared it would make her internal wound get worse.

"Dammit! What should I do?" Narcius squatted beside Mint, covering his face. He regretted why he didn't bomb or throw spiky balls earlier. He could have done something about it, but he didn't do anything until he saw Mint thrown by a big branch.

"Mint, stay with me.. Don't leave us, Mint. Don't leave me,"Rue didn't realize what was thrown out from his mouth, he told her whatever in his mind. Mint didn't answer him, she just breathed, sometimes interrupted by deep sighs or wheezes. Rue held her hand, he remembered the same moment when Claire lied on the snow, her bloody head was injured by Ruecian's arm of death. He clearly saw blood tinted the white snow everywhere-his hands were covered by blood too. Rue was feeling useless and helpless that time, he could do nothing, except watching Claire finally lose her breath. He had fought Ruecian, yet Claire still didn't survive. But, Mint? He just watched her get hit damn hard by a stupid branch, didn't bother to attack Bella, so that devil didn't cut the branches and finally made one fly to Mint.

"Hhh.. Don't..cry...Moron.." Mint opened her eyes, red met brown eye to eye. She didn't see Rue's face, all she saw was fragmented face. Rue didn't realize the tears flowing from his eyes. Narcius's smile bloomed.

"This girl definitely is a strong brat!"

Mint didn't like too much attention, she decided to try her Restore Health spell. She grabbed her rings, she tried to rotate them. Rue was worried but he knew it'd be better for her to try. The rings slowly revolved one another, buzzing and shining, after some seconds-almost forever for Mint-Dual Halos were finally ready to cast the spell. Mint's stomach was about to rip too since maintaining the position was really sacrificing her wound stability.

"Cos..m-mos, e..ego res..ti..tu..o..AAARGGH!" Mint casted the spell, but she couldn't hold it anymore. The rings buzzed loudly then lots of sparkling dust flew around her and healed her. Unfortunately, Mint dropped her rings in the middle of the process. She heard Rue and Narcius calling, and everything disappeared. Mint finally passed out. Rue froze, he thought he lost an important girl again in his life.

"Is she..." Rue wasn't able to mention the sacred word~dead. He said that word when Claire stopped breathing and combined into his Dewprism fragment, and he wouldn't repeat his mistake by saying it again. He couldn't imagine if the [Relic] of Elements hunt changed into a journey to reviving Mint. No, he didn't want the grief tie his chest anymore.

Narcius yelled at Rue, "No, you fool! She is just passing out! Man, you're way too emotional!"

"..." Rue ignored the other sentences, except the second sentence. He keep staring at Mint, his hand caressing her hair. He glided his fingers through her sweaty hair, he wasn't disgusted touching her sweat. He didn't want to move her anywhere, it might hurt Mint. Mint's pale face slowly changed into healthy blushing face. The spell worked, although maybe it wasn't complete.

"The spell! She's not pale anymore!" Rue exclaimed.

"..." Narcius was observing Rue. He felt something strange with Rue. He was much too concerned about Mint. It might be because Mint was his partner, they had been through many challenges together. But, Narcius was Kirielle's old partner too, he ever saw her injured badly and even scolded her stupidity for losing the battle.

"Rue, do you love Mint?" finally Narcius stuck out the question from his mouth. Rue turned his face to the standing Narcius. He was confused. He was worried about Mint more than Claire and that moment he was surprised why he did so.

"No. Why should I love her? She's my partner, there's no reason for me to do that," Rue looked away. He answered something he wasn't even sure. His words were empty and stupid. They sounded like big bullshits to Narcius.

"No reason? Man, now I tell you, as her partner, you've got many reasons to fall in love with her. No offense, but your answer is...full of lies. You cried for her, men don't drop tears to something unworthy! Tch!" Narcius walked away and sat against a tree.

"..." Rue suddenly realized what Narcius just yelled.

'Men don't drop tears to something unworthy. He's right.. But, am I in love with Mint? I don't even understand myself..'

TO BE CONTINUED

Finally, I'm relieved I could write a new chapter. It's difficult since I usually get inspiration in the middle of the night, then i write until about 2 am, then I'm late for college in the morning! (+_+) And, probably I'll update again after exam on next Tuesday. T_T

ReLiC AnGel : You help me with your suggestion about imagination! I'm happy that I finally improve my story! Thank you for reading.. ^^

Please, give reviews about my story, anonymous reviews are accepted. l really really appreciate any objective critics or suggestions! See you!^^


	6. Chapter 6

This is Chapter 6.. Man, I'm trying to design the storyline, I hope I'll really make it. ^^

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It was always the same situation in Fire Forest. The sun rose and set outside, but even the sun-the biggest star in Milky Way galaxy-didn't make any change. Fire Forest never slept, the monsters screamed and growled through the day and night 24/7. Mere human without any special ability would not dare to enter this place. They called it creepy, or dangerous, or both. However, they were right. Fire Forest was creepy and dangerous. Numerous monsters with awesome powers were wandering around there, the creatures that wouldn't forgive any human from walking in on their land. Monsters were created for a guarding-magician's-properties purpose. Valen, the greatest Aeon ever, was the one who created these heartless Fire Forest occupants. He did it all to protect one of three magical items that were made to unlock his magnificent creation, [Relic] of Elements-a [relic] which Rue, Mint, and Narcius were looking for.

But, the adventure wasn't limited to plenty monsters only, there would always be some characters who tried to stop them from getting the priceless [relic]-on purpose or not. A day before, the [relic] team had met one gorgeous underestimation-obsessed girl who succeeded in injuring Mint badly. Mint passed out, but finally regained her conciousness on the next day.

Mint opened her eyes slowly, showing two burgundy red eyeballs which usually shone with ambition about world conquest, but that morning they were weak and blank. She didn't have to remember where she was since she would never forget the stupid forest. Mint was never injured too bad nor passing out in her previous journeys, but then just for some couple hours, she was injured twice and fainted! She had never been such a big loser.

Mint got up from where she was lying some minutes ago. She was getting up, when she found a clothe above her. The girl saw a long pale yellow leather coat covering her body from the low temperature and realized it belonged to the rudest person in the team, Narcius. Mint was touched by his surprising kindness to lend the coat as her blanket-something he would never do as a Trap Master before. Soon, she found the other teammates were leaning at a tree, sleeping.

'Rue.. He cried yesterday.. ' Mint sighed. The doll was sleeping peacefully, he folded his arms before the chest, his breath was regular and slow. Mint felt the bond between Rue and her. She didn't want to see any tears from Rue, he should have never cried anymore since Claire had been revived. But yesterday, Mint made him cry again. Her right hand moved to touch that boy's face when..

DANG!

Rue's right hand, which had been holding the Arc Edge the whole time, moved the weapon to protect him-exactly to protect Mint whom he thought was still unconscious. He was really one true warrior since he didn't let even a slumber to defeat his awareness. It was Mint's rather good luck since he only used the weapon's gripping side as a defense. Mint had seen Rue's heartless and violent eyes everytime he fought, but that was the first time he used those eyes to her.

Both didn't move for seconds, staring each other, until Narcius butted in and pushed Rue's hand used to hold the weapon aside.

"HEY, RUE! That's Mint! What are you doing, moron!" Narcius shouted at Rue.

"Mint, you're awake.." Rue definitely ignored Narcius, his words made Narcius just sighed in defeat. "That's it! He didn't give a damn about me.. Pshh.."

Mint showed her normal behaviour, bossy-arrogant-too proud.

"What the heck, I won't die by that robot's tickling attack! Huh!"

"No way, Weaky Princess! You passed out merely due to a tiny branch! So W-E-A-K.. WEAK!" Narcius stucked his tongue out and immediately got a good jumpkick penalty from Mint.

"... (She's definitely fine. I shouldn't have cried for her..)" Rue sweatdropped. But, the relief didn't last long since Mint suddenly groaned, holding the left side of her stomach. The Restore Health did heal, but incompletely.

"Oh, [expletive]! What the hell.." Mint fell to the ground in kneeling position. Narcius panicly rushed to get up from the ground.

"MINT!" Rue exclaimed and held both her arms, he was afraid that Mint would pass out again. He really hated the feeling when he saw Mint lying quietly with a pale face and blood dripping from her lips.

Mint arrogantly shouted, "Hey! Don't scream that loud! I ain't gonna di-OUCH! Damn.." Painful pinch happened again.

"..." Rue said nothing but gazed Mint with such a deep worry eyes. Narcius gave Mint the Dual Haloes and she used the healing spell once again. She was utterly healthy instantly.

"Alrighty~! Unknown item to open my [relic], here I comeee...!" Mint jumped happily. She walked away to continue the journey as if nothing had happened to her some moments ago, then bossed her male teammates, "Hey, boys! What are you doing by just standing there! Come on, come on! Quick!"

"Shut up, you weak! We saved you and now you're leaving us that easily? Soo ungrateful!" said Narcius, ordinary girl would think it was a rude tone-luckily, Mint thought he was joking with that tone. She grinned happily. Rue also smiled, he was delighted that Mint was alright. Next time, he'd do whatever to protect her even when it meant to sacrifice his body and soul.

Rue and Narcius-who had put on his coat again-finally walked too. It was only ten steps when Narcius, nearly unheard, carefully whispered to Rue, "She's gonna be just fine.. You don't have to worry about your lovely girl."

Rue just smiled without turning his face to Narcius, "Of course she's fine. But, I'm tired of telling your imbecile brain that she's just my partner.."

Narcius had never guessed that Rue would spit out such words. His blood pressure raised and he almost shouted to Rue when Mint told them to stop chatting and focus on the journey.

It was strange because not even a monster came to disturb them. They could hear Alatos scream from far away, but none came near them. Nobody talked, since Rue and Narcius had arguements and Mint was a little tired due to her wound. It was healed but the spell absorbed too much energy.

Almost one hour, but they seemed walking alone there. Half hour ago, Alatos didn't scream anymore. They supposed squeaky sounds around them as crickets, although crickets didn't squeak, not even in a middle of the day.

"[Expletive]! Where the hell are we going! This forest sucks! Arrgghh!" Mint finally broke the silence with her angry voice. She stomped rapidly on a big root before her.

"Hey, do you think we're just walking in the same place? I don't think we are moving anywhere!" Narcius followed Mint's anger, he was angry all of a sudden.

"... No, we are not walking in the same place. I was observing that the trees got smaller." Rue turned his face to convince everybody. Mint nodded. She saw it too.

Narcius sat under a tree and mumbled. Mint and Rue couldn't hear exactly what he was saying, one thing for sure he was uttering curses. Mint raised her shoulders, she knew that she was not the only impolite human there. Just because she said it first, the Alatos kicked her butts first too. She turned her head to the left and found something.

"Rue, what's that hut?" He saw to a direction Mint was pointing and found a hut behind the trees- or.. house? Or, atelier? Rue squinted his eyes. Narcius got up and joined the other two.

"Me see, me see! Huh? That's not a hut, moron. That's an atelier!" Narcius yelled at Mint and gave the princess a playful punch at her shoulder. Mint rolled her red burgundy eyes and yelled back, "How the [expletive] do you know that's an atelier! Holy [expletive].."

"Ssh.. you two. Stop that curses.." Rue finally stopped them. He decided to approach the atelier. Although nobody knew what it was, Rue had an opinion that it was better to explore it. Maybe they could find something.

"Maybe Bermoré is staying there.." said Narcius.

"Dumbhead porcupine.. Bermoré is living in Cave of Darkness!"

"You're the dumbhead! Imagine maybe this ugly hut had a stair to underground toward the cave! Tch!"

While Narcius and Mint continued their silly arguements, Rue had reached its front door. That was possibly an atelier. It had no fence or gate, but it was surrounded by black flowers. Its wall consisted of stone bricks, some corners were mossy and broken, green spiralling plants climbed the wall. The building didn't have windows, all it had was a old two sided doors with colourful mozaic glass on top of it. Guarding the door, two statues sculpted as angels stood upright. Rue frowned since the angels were not sweet like ordinary angel sculptures-the cupids were horrible with wide angry eyes, trisulas at every angels' right hand pointing to everyone before them, and the spreading out bat wings.

"Holy [expletive]! What is this thing? Valentine's hut for the evils? Belle and Duke would suit this place!" Mint suddenly appeared behind Rue. Rue was startled.

'What's this 'holy' phrases about? She found a new style of cursing..' Rue shooked his head. He really couldn't understand where a princess learnt curses from. Her angelic face didn't match her devil tongue.

"Should we enter this place?" asked Mint. She flipped her left pigtail as she talked, fortunately she didn't use the right hand since her ring would smacked Rue on the face. Rue actually didn't realize, he was staring at the building. Something wasn't right.. He was suspicious of the aura, but he didn't know what that was.

Narcius came to join Rue and Mint. He was a bit surprised after seeing the building's appearance and yelled. "Damn, this ain't look like an atelier! Creepy pl-" he yelled as if he couldn't talk normally. Mint was annoyed with Narcius, she hit his stomach with the ring. It wasn't hard, but it was enough to stop him from yelling.

"If there's a monster in here, it will hear your terrible voice! Alright, let's go there!" said Mint furiously. Rue, on the other hand, disagreed the idea. He had a bad feeling of what would happen next, even if they just stood in front of the building.

"No. We're leaving." Rue finally talked.

Rue's words confused Mint since he was the one who went closer to this place, then he just said they shouldn't get into it. Narcius felt the same with Mint. He didn't understand why all of a sudden the usually brave Rue didn't want to enter the building.

"Whassup, Rue! Are you afraid or what? We don't know if there's a hidden path to Cave of Darkness in that building!" Narcius yelled. Mint rolled her eyes, she was getting dizzy to listen to his creaky voice. Nevertheless, she agreed with him. That was what in her mind too. A hidden pathway.

"..." Rue didn't say anything. His feeling was strong enough to say no, but his friends said something reasonable. However, he decided to stay away from that place. If there was a hidden pathway to Cave of Darkness in the building, there might be unhidden way somewhere else. It was logic, though.

"No, I feel bad about this thing. Let's go." Rue used his cold tone to rule Mint and Narcius. Narcius raised his shoulders, then he walked away too. He just felt that maybe Rue was right. The only one who still insisted to stay was Mint.

"What the hell! Hey, CHICKENS! Come back here then we go into that place! If you're afraid, just go home and hide under Claire's armpit! Tch!" Mint yelled at the two men who was walking away. Narcius turned his head strangely calm, while Rue seemed not paying any attention to Mint's provocative words.

"I don't know, Mint. As long as the journey, Rue is always right. And you always bring the misfortune to us.." Narcius smirked since he could use the chance to mock Mint. Rue still didn't care, his ribbons waved slowly to Mint-expressing his decision to leave. Mint stomped her foot madly.

"I'm teaming with chickens! That's it! I'm going there!"

Rue heard stomping sounds of Mint's feet getting away from him. He worried Mint's super bravery. Bravery was never wrong, if it was done in a right place. While Mint was always brave, whether it was wrong or right situation, but mostly wrong.

"We shouldn't let her go there alone."

Narcius stopped walking, he was looking at the moving Mint too. Rue sighed heavily. He would never forgive himself if something happened to Mint. Maybe she was annoying, spoiling, stubborn, bossy, dirty mouth and many other evil characteristics in her, but basically she was loyal and good. Mint was the best partner for him, he admitted it. He memorized the moment Mint lying weakly, getting hurt because he chose to split from her and hide. No, he didn't want to see such bloody scene again. Finally, he decided to follow her.

That was when he turned around and heard Mint exclaim in horror.

"RUE! NARCIUS! WATCH OUT!"

It happened so fast. Rue thought something hurt her but he was wrong. Mint was standing there, healthy and complete as before, with widening eyes. Something flew to Rue and lifted him when he was being off-guard. Suprised, he let the Arc Edge slipped perfectly from his hand. The weapon fell and hit the ground, making a loud bumping sound. Down there Narcius's mouth opened like an idiot, he was surprised too until he couldn't do anything but stare. Mint ran following the monster carrying Rue, she was cursing the whole time.

"[EXPLETIVE] CUPIDS! STOP THERE! HEEEYY..! I SAID STOP, YOU [EXPLETIVE] [EXPLETIVE]!" Mint screamed, her eyes was filled by unexplainable anger. Rue looked upward and found the cupid statues become alive. They were still stone, he could feel their rough surface touching his human skin-only the wings changed into real huge black bat wings.. He tried to get free, but the other cupid quickly gripped his ankles. Both laughed in evil creepy voice-typical kid's high pitched voice. Rue disliked their shining red eyes, it did shine literally.

"Ehee-hee-hee-hee! Ugly Juliet, if you want your Romeo back, come to our atelier! We'll celebrate a good bloody Valentine! Ehee-hee-hee-hee!" they yelled in a disgusting choir, then flew through a big hole at the second floor, carrying hopeless Rue.

"Rue! I promise I'll save you from that [expletive] terrible cupids! Just wait!" Mint yelled to Rue, right before the boy's hat disappeared in the hole.

Narcius had never seen the real angry face of Mint. Honestly, it scared him a bit.

"[Expletive]! [Expletive]! I'll kill them! I'll slice them and throw their [expletive] crusted butts to hell!" Mint kicked and punched the trees nearby. Then without saying anything to Narcius, she ran into the atelier.

"Ugghh.. I never want to celebrate Valentine anymore! The cupid sucks!" he mumbled as he ran into the atelier too.

Narcius found Mint was walking hastily in the atelier. Suddenly, the door was slammed by such invisible hand and some old rusty slots along the door moved and locked it involuntarily.

"What the heck.. They're locking us? [Expletive]!" Narcius cursed, but Mint kept walking as if she hadn't heard a thing. They were in a long aisle and a single door was at the other corner of the aisle. The floor was covered by dusty red carpet. Some mice ran accross the aisle from a hole to another, giving low squeaks everytime they passed. Narcius frowned, he wondered what kind of creature they would meet living in such a dirty and old place like this. On the other hand, Mint didn't even give a damn about anything around her. Whether it was mouse or even a dragon, nothing could stop her from finding Rue. She was impatient to chop the cupids' tiny butts off, those creatures really pissed her off.

Mint arrived at the door. Without knocking, she casted Blowup Rocks spell way too eager. She released almost 10 balls to break the door. Even when it was shattered badly, she spilled her anger by kicking one big piece accross the room. Narcius just sighed as he saw Mint punch the wall and it broke as if one Blowup Rock had hit it.

"HEGHH! [EXPLETIVE] atelier! Rue! Where are you!" Mint yelled harshly. Narcius just walked into the area after the door. It was a hall, lots of tall and big windows lined in two sides of the wall. Typical benches in the church were arranged in a neat way, filled almost 3/4 proportion of the room. The ceiling was high above, a big candelier hung centrally-even from far away, Narcius could clearly see spider webs covering the candelier. The air was musty and it rather smelled sweet rotten scent.

"Your sweety pie is here, little girl.."

Mint and Narcius immediately looked ahead and saw a man standing before a crusade at the other side of the hall. There, Rue tied and crucified, something glowed around him. He was definitely under control of the Dolls Spell.

"What's happening with Rue? Why did he glow like a lamp?" Narcius mumbled, he didn't figure out what was going on. Meanwhile, Mint couldn't stand seeing Rue in such a stupid condition.

"[Expletive]! Who are you? How dare you using that spell to him! I'll kill you for that!" Mint walked toward the man who was standing about 200 meters from her. When she was close enough, she figured out who the man was. He had snowy hair, porcelain-like skin, and especially a purple gem shining at the center of his forehead.

"You're.. Doll of Valen! Are you Ruegia?" Mint yelled in surprise. The man laughed after hearing Mint's question. Narcius frowned seeing his reaction.

"Ain't funny, moron.. Stop laughing! Tch!" Narcius yelled from behind of Mint. However, his cold laugh made him shiver. The man slowly stopped laughing, leaving a smirk on his face. He was wearing black hooded robe with golden threads embroided at the edge, the robe was so long that it spread out on the floor.

"Why so serious.." the man grinned.

"[Expletive]! Just answer me! I don't need your ugly pathetic smile!" Mint exclaimed, she slashed her left Dual Halo aside. He wasn't afraid, not a bit of fear appeared on his handsome face. He closed his eyes, lips smiling.

"Yes.. I'm Ruegia. So, what are you gonna do.. Princess Mint?"

TO BE CONTINUED..

Alright, chapter 6! I was absent for a while due to my exam. Damn, it was difficult! T.T Anywayy,, I still get inspiration to continue this story. Hee-hee. To ReLiC AnGeL : oh-oh, thank you! And I'll say it once again, my development of exploring the story appeared after reading Baby of Mine.. Imagination? Uhm, imagination is my world! LOL :D

After all, give a review please.. Tell me whether you're satisfied or you wanna throw up due to my story, tell me everything! I appreciate your opinion, as long as it's objective, okayy? See ya! :D


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 is here! Banzai! ^^

ReLiC AnGeL : Ah, my faults. I'm still confused about how to use them appropriately, nevertheless thanks for your explanation.. I also found wrong verb usages in my story. Ayeyiyi.. -_- My bad, I didn't check it. This chapter and later, I'll try to write better! Anyway, you're so good that you forgive me. :D

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"So, you are the [expletive] Ruegia! You know what you're gonna get from me, stinking doll! Many nice jumpkicks at your [expletive] face!" Mint shouted at a man in front of her. The man just smiled, as if Mint was entertaining him with jokes. Narcius really disliked his reaction. Maybe Narcius was not obsessed about underestimation, but that man smirked in underestimating expression. Rue was still tied at the crusade, he couldn't do anything. He was weak and exhausted. Mint glanced him worriedly and he glanced her back with blank eyes.

"What the [expletive] are you thinking, eh? Stop smiling Ruegia, tell us what we wanna hear! And.. how could you figure out my name? Are you reading-" Mint suddenly closed her mouth, she knew someone who did the same to her. Rue's creator, Ekrah. So, Ruegia had the same ability! Oh, she really loathed any mind-reading stuffs!

The man laughed again, this time was louder than his previous laughters. His shoulders shaked badly, one hand was placed on the stomach. Narcius frowned. He never saw someone who laughed everytime others talked to him.

"What do you call me? Ruegia? So serious, little princess.. I'm not the badass Ruegia, I was kidding and you trusted my joke easily! You amuse me, same like my ex-brother here. He amused me too much until I had to shut his fussy mouth with magic.." that man glanced Rue. Mint was annoyed to the max, this man played on her! He told a silly joke to the deadly serious Mint? That was unforgivenable sin!

"[EXPLETIVE] DOLL! WHAT THE [EXPLETIVE] IS HAPPENING IN YOUR LAME BRAIN!" Mint shouted so loud that Narcius had to close his ears. Exactly, he agreed about the curses, he himself really wanted to chop him good with spiky balls into a pile of meat porridge. That man laughed again, the fourth laughter in just 5 minutes of their first meeting.

"Curses, curses, and curses. Wow, you sure are a cursing machine. Anyway guys, my name is Ruesethra. I proudly pronounce myself as Valen's doll and I live just to serve him forever. When he told me to stay here for good, I'll stay forever and never defy Him. Unlike this ill-hearted doll.. So ungrateful. He chose to follow his will and now.. See? His will brings him to my hand! I will never hesitate to destroy this dirty stupid doll with bare hands for what he had done to my Lord!" said Ruesethra, his voice was full of hatred, even insensitive human like Narcius could feel his feeling. It was just some minutes ago he laughed happily, and then his face drastically became serious and dark. Mint was a little scared, a day before she just faced an underestimation-obsessed enemy, then she was facing a master-obsessed doll. What a journey! She'd better get this [relic] since she had sacrificed everything.

"H-huh.. Keep serving your stupid Lord! But, stop reading my mind! Geez, you're so much like Ekrah.." Mint stuttered. She lost thirty percents of her courage. Ruesethra grinned as he heard that name. He might recognize the person since they were brothers.

"Mine, mine. Such a low-class magician like you dare to mock the mighty Valen! Princess today is lacking of attitude!" he put a sinister grin on his face, "Ah, I almost forgot.. Ekrah. The ungrateful broken doll, Valen taught him magic and he used it to betray my Lord through Rue's hands," Ruesethra got silent for couple of seconds until he finally sighed heavily, "After all, I am still his apprentice."

'That's why he could read my identity.. Oops! I shouldn't think!' Mint exclaimed in her mind. She gazed Ruesethra and he was laughing- again. He might have just read her mind or he just laughed without any reason-he did it before, that wasn't strange for someone who trapped himself in a musty atelier for hundreds of years.

"Oh? Human will never stop mumbling in their mind, Princess Impolite. You know that very well, or maybe you don't? What a pity.. And since you're mere human, I will always read your mind. That was what Ekrah always told me."

"I'm a broken doll, just like him. The difference, my iris is not red since I was soon established as a broken doll right before I overused my power. He taught me everything about mind-controlling magic, that's what Valen did to him. I was and I'm still disappointed to know that he controlled Rue's memory to forget the duty.. Tch.." Ruesethra shooked his head, the evil smirk never faded from his lips as he spoke. Then, Ruesethra walked toward the crusade where Rue just stared blankly at their conversation. He seemed not into anything, no interest even to his own condition.

'What's happening with Rue.. His gazing is so idiot and empty! Is he conscious or what?' Mint bit her lower lip confusedly. He was suspicious Ruesethra had done something to him, something about controlling the doll's mind.

"Oh, you said you shouldn't think any words in your mind, Princess Mint.. But, I just read something from your brain. Hahaha.. Well, he's idiot, that's why he's gazing us like that. Check this one out. Hey, Rue! Confess that you're an idiot doll who defies his creator! Plus.. give a perverted smile to our Princess, maybe she can give a nice jumpkick to you. Hahaha.. Now, do it, Imperium animo!" Ruesethra gave some orders to you. He moved his index finger spiralling toward Rue, sparkling magic dusts flew slowly from his hand. That scene was really pathetic and it hurt Mint really bad. She loathed the way Ruesethra humiliated Rue's pride.

Rue blinked his eyes several times as a sign that he acknowledged the orders. He opened his lips, eyes were hollow, and said everything with a clear voice.

"I'm an idiot doll who defies my creator. Hee-hee-hee.." Rue smirked like a preverted gangster in the movies. Mint was not even annoyed, on the other hand she almost cried. She never cried or almost cried before. Narcius, who was silent, didn't even like the situation. He put his hands in his coat's pockets and stared at anything else, except Rue.

She pointed her left ring to Ruesethra who was laughing in a devilish way. Her face was blushing a deep red, not because seeing Rue's inapproprite smile, but due to her ready-to-burst-anytime anger.

"What the [expletive]! That's not funny! Stop doing it! Stop doing the [EXPLETIVE] stuffs!" her eyes were filled by tears. Ruesethra now motioned his mouth as if he was saying something without a sound, and the under-mind-controlling-spell Rue followed him.

"I'm idiot, I'm idiot, I'm idiot, I'm idiot, I'm idiot, I'm damn idiot, I'm damn [expletive] idiot, [expletive], [expletive], [expletive], [expletive], I'm idiot doll, I'm a dummy, [expletive], [expletive] me, HAHAHAHA.." Rue obeyed every single words motioned by Ruesethra's lips, he even laughed the way mentally deficit persons would do. Narcius's mouth dropped, he had never heard even a curse from Rue as long as he recognized him. While, Mint couldn't help it anymore. She stomped her foot furiously and growled in anger.

"STOP-PLAYING-WITH-US-RUESETHRA! I'LL KILL YOU! I'M GONNA CUT YOUR HEAD! YOU'RE SOO DEEAADD!" Mint lost her control and rotated her rings. The Dual Halos revolved quickly and let out sparks and bright shine from its holes. Ruesethra didn't even stop giving his sweetest also the slyest smile he ever had as he saw Mint's reaction.

"Let's see if you keep doing your spell, Mint," he grinned happily then opened his right hand toward Rue, "To you born of dew, I command accept your destiny and awaken your powers!"

Mint closed her mouth, her rings fell to the floor, its noisy sound echoed in the air. She realized what was gonna happen. She fell kneeling on the floor, grabbing the Dual Haloes back. Sweat spread on her skin.

Mint and Narcius couldn't do anything as Rue broke the spell and jumped from the crusade where he was crucified. The ropes which tied his hands and ankles, was cut into pieces by his radiating power and laid forgotten on the floor. Mint shooked her head, she was shivering and her legs were numb. Whatever happened, she couldn't fight Rue! That was riddiculous, she was not able to imagine the battle she would endure. How would she defeat Rue if she couldn't hurt him?

They heard childish laugh from the ceiling, the evil cupids flew 6 meters above them, they were carrying the Arc Edge that was left outside. Ruesethra walked calmly to Rue, he grabbed Rue's left shoulder and proudly exclaimed.

"Rue, now it's time for you to be a good doll. A good doll never denies his master. Consider me as your master, obey me! Get your weapon up there and we'll fight those pathetic flies!" Ruesethra himself drew a weapon. It was something made from steel, folded into a small handfan-like form. He separated the two first folds and it suddenly bloomed into a big horrible four blades boomerang.

'What the hell! How could such a small thing turn into huge weapon? Damn!' Narcius was really surprised.

On the other hand, Rue nodded out of his control and whispered, "Yes, my Lord." He then jumped so high to where the cupids held his weapon. Mint and Narcius gazed him in disbelief, he couldn't jump that high!

Rue grabbed the weapon, and right before his feet touched the ground and swung his hand to slash the floor, something shone and swirled on the ground around him. The atelier hall faded as the ground shone brighter. Mint was confused what was happening, but it didn't last long when someone grabbed her hand and something sounded like explosion and cracking ground toward her, made the dusts flew everywhere. She landed on the ground and coughed, her breath panted rapidly. She was injured at lower limbs since her skin roughly made contact with the ground, although that meant nothing to Mint. When the situation was clear enough, she found her saviour- Narcius lied next to her, he was panting too. They were back in the middle of Fire Forest. Ruesethra might have transported them out of his atelier. Just like Narcius, he might end up destroying the atelier with his biggy weapon.

Mint got up and observed something had destroy the ground where she was supposed to stand before Narcius moved her away, leaving around one meter wide and ten meters long pathway mark as deep as 30 cm. Narcius tried to get on his knees and cursed.

"Damn that [expletive] Ruesethra doll! Rue almost killed us! You see that mark! We're dead, Mint! DEAD!" Narcius exclaimed in panic and horror. He scratched his head desperately, he totally lost his courage. He didn't look like he was the great Trap Master.

"..." Mint gazed the pathway caused by Arc Edge in silent. 'This is nightmare.. I know Rue is awesome, but Ruesethra has awakened his ultimate power. And.. I-I can't fight Rue! No way! This makes me crazy!' Mint bit her lips too hard until it cracked and bleed. She didn't care about it anymore. She was awfully confused.

Not far from Mint and Narcius, where the path begun, two identical men stood with their own weapons. One was conscious, the other one was under control of the conscious man.

"Right after Rue and I take care of you two, Rue will join Ruegia to fight Bermoré and other guardians, then they'd release Applesweet. Ah, my brother, you should be proud to be under the authority of Valen's son," Ruesethra put his right hand around passive Rue's neck accross the left shoulder to the right. Rue didn't give a damn about his words, he wouldn't talk or answer if Ruesethra didn't tell him to.

Mint was surprised. "W-what the-? But you said Ruegia is a badass! Did you joke again that moment? [Expletive]!" Mint bursted in anger. That was the second time she trusted his silly jokes!

"No, really. I was serious about that part. I disliked Ruegia, but I didn't say I disliked the idea of releasing Applesweet after all.. At least in my opinion, if it's not Valen, his own flesh and blood has a right continue Valen's dream. At the end, Valen was not different from Aquose.. Yeah, they both craved for this universe.." Ruesethra raised his shoulders knowingly. Mint wished she could've ripped that face, literally.

"We're dead! Duh.. we're DEAD!" Narcius squatted and held his head with both hands. Ruesethra laughed slyly.

"No, Narcius. You shouldn't fight my dear long lost brother and me, if you join us! Mint, it's available for you too. Interested?" Ruesethra blinked his left eye. Mint closed her eyes, she clenched her fist tightly. Narcius didn't say a word, he kept squatting, his head was down. Both of them was quiet with desperate pose. The silence was almost forever for Mint when she heard Narcius finally got up. She really thought that Narcius chickened out again. If he did it, how would she face the three of them? Should she surrender too or what?

"What the heck! We ain't gonna follow your stupid opinion, we'll release Rue from your [expletive] magic, slice those Ruegia and Apple thing, and get our [relic]! [Expletive] you, remember my words! You're gonna be dead! (BOOM!) Soo [expletive] dead! (BOOM!) Right, Mint?" Narcius stomped his foot to emphasize what he was uttering with minor explosions. Mint opened her eyes, two red burgundy iris shone with mixing emotions-anger, ambition, and confidence. This time, Narcius was really brave, exactly rather hyperbrave since they were not facing such amateur enemies. Narcius should've realized good punches he ever tasted from Rue in Dewprism adventure, and he was only one Doll of Valen. But, two? That was called catastrophe. However, Narcius did encourage Mint to decide.

"That's right! Not even Rue nor you, the [expletive] villain, can hold me away from my world conquest! Prepare to eat my dust!" She yelled arrogantly, one hand using the ring to point at the dolls. She decided to fight Rue, however the consequences she would get. Ruesethra laughed. His boomerang suddenly burnt with fire. He was ready to fight.

"That's fine for us.. This battle, I won't use my mind-controlling ability to defeat such louses like you! THEN BE IT!"

The boomerang buzzed like hell, it was rotating full speed in Ruesethra's skilled hands. Since it was burnt by fire before, the boomerang shot many fire balls. Mint had predicted that the boomerang would create such annoying fireballs, but she didn't guess it would rotate so fast. Her feet could barely stand on the ground, that was why she ducked on the ground, waiting for the boomerang stopped circling. Suddenly, Mint clearly heard some explosions happen, they made Ruesethra lose his concentration and stop moving his weapon.

Exactly, he was thrown by Narcius's nice explosion. Although it was merely several meters, at least his boomerang finally stopped making the wind. Mint got up, she found Rue attacking Narcius. Narcius quickly jumped from one spot to another, but he had a big difficulity to dodge- Rue was faster then ever. Mint rotated her rings to cast some spells to Rue, but something full speed such a lightning passed in front of her. That was really close, if it touched her, she would probably lose her nose. But Mint was not relieved yet, since it was a boomerang, the thing rotated once again back to where his owner was standing.

"Let them fight, Mint. Now, face me! I heard that you said I'd eat your dusts.. How pathetic your wish is. Tch.."

Ruesethra was standing several feet from her, his boomerang stood upright besides. He didn't laugh anymore, his face was serious and heartless. Mint gulped her saliva, she'd rather like the cheerful Ruesethra than this one. The moment Ruesethra was talking, Narcius sent gliding spiky ball to Rue. Unfortunately, Rue destroyed the ball with just one good punch-one hand punch!

"Dammit, Rue! Why do I have to fight you again? I'm your [expletive] teammate now!" Narcius shouted when Rue's Arc Edge almost hit his right toe. Rue was so much like the real doll, his eyes were empty and there wasn't any emotion. He didn't care whatever Narcius told, he just had to fight them as his master's orders.

Narcius was confused whether he should use the explosion to Rue or not. If yes, he might end up killing Rue. If not, Rue might end up killing him and Mint- he supposed that Mint couldn't take two enemies at the same time. However, he couldn't resist such powerful continuous attack just by jumping here and there! Once he lost the tempo, he'd definitely sacrifice his own life.

"[EXPLETIVE]! I can't hold it anymore! [Expletive] it, whether he's my ally or not, eat my expl-" Narcius leaped to create a distance from Rue and he was about to stomp his foot when Mint forbid him.

"Narcius! Don't ever do that! Hey, what the [expletive], Ruesethra!" Mint called Narcius in the middle of her battle with Ruesethra, "Once I take down this dummy, the magic controlling Rue will be gone!" Mint jumped to avoid the boomerang and slashed Ruesethra's back. She was exhausted since she didn't regain any monsters' magic of life after using Restore Health spell. She got sliced by the boomerang in several parts, her skin soaked with blood. Although it was minor injuries, the wounds made her rather difficult to move.

Narcius shooked his head for hearing Mint's statement. That was impossible, he didn't wanna wait any longer. Rue was three times faster and stronger than when he fought Narcius three months ago. Narcius couldn't escape from him merely by hopping like a toad, while Rue slashed and hacked like a leopard.

"I'm sorry, Mint.. I must explode him!" Narcius mumbled in apology to Mint although the girl didn't hear a thing- Ruesethra was hacking his boomerang furiously toward the princess. He jumped again as Rue got closer to him and stomped his foot.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

"NO, NARCIUS! What I just told you, dumbass!" Mint yelled in frustration. A thick smoke was covering Narcius and Rue from her sight. She couldn't concentrate too much on them due to flying boomerang. Mint squatted when the weapon flew above her head, tiredly got up again when she saw something horrible.

Narcius was lying on the ground, right sleeve was torn and showed deeply sliced skin. Blood was flowing from his skin and flooding the leather coat he was wearing. While in front of the pale Narcius was Rue with his plain expression. He wasn't hurt even a spot by the explosion.

Narcius thought he had blew him away, but Rue suddenly hacked his Arc Edge several times from behind the smoke. Narcius tried to avoid Rue's sudden attacks, he could jumped away the first hit, but his luck wasn't that brilliant for the next two slashes- one hurt the right upper arm, the other one injured his left flank. If he had been a little slower, Rue might have cut him into two separated parts.

'Narcius.. Oh, no!' Mint covered her mouth. Rue was definitely gonna kill Narcius. It couldn't happen that way! Why Rue had to kill Narcius when he was already a good boy, when he was already their teammate, when he finally joined their sides? That was unfair!

Rue was walking toward Narcius, he didn't show any mercy or pity at the man who was injured badly by his action. Narcius groan in a great pain, he was suffering from the peritoneum and periosteum bad injuries. His face was pale due to fear and major blood loss. Narcius gritted his teeth, he couldn't move anywhere. He was impossible to fight, even lying really hurt!

"No.. Rue.. Man, d-don't.. kill.. m-m-me.. Uggghh.. I'M YOUR PARTNER, FOR [EXPLETIVE] GOD'S SAKE!" Narcius tried to awaken the real Rue, finally yelling at Rue with all energies left in him. Rue didn't even change his expression. Rue's silky white hair was blown by the wind, adding the horror to his appearance as a heartless doll who was ready to eliminate the life of his enemy.. He stopped right before Narcius, one hand was steadily gripping the Arc Edge. Narcius realized it was nonsense to talk to Rue, he wouldn't listen. He sighed heavily and held his flank as if it could erase the pain away.

Not far from Rue, Mint was still trying to save her own life from Ruesethra. She did everything she could, but Ruesethra didn't seem like getting injured by any spells. Triple Blades, Blowup Rocks, Drop Ice, Low Flame, Flame, Fireball- these spells were mere tickles for Ruesethra since he gave out stupid giggles as his reaction.

"Who's your daddy, Mint? Who's your daddy! Keep fighting me, I will never lose! You're way too confident with your silly spells.. Perhaps, if Rue's done with him, I will give Rue this very rare chance to kill you! GYA HA HA HA HA HA!" said Ruesethra, he was chasing Mint around and trying to chop her many times with the boomerang. Ruesethra had to be strong enough, he could run and use that super heavy weapon at the same time. While Mint was already sweating and panting badly. She had a feeling that Ruesethra were playing with her until she got very low on energy, then he could kill her easily.

She glanced Narcius and saw that Rue didn't do anything, but stood still. Narcius was lying on the ground, he didn't make any movement. His eyes were closed with hands laid on the ground. Mint was worried like hell. Did Rue finally finish his duty and do nothing since Narcius was already dead?

"No way.. NO!" Mint whispered in disbelief, she stopped running from the spinning boomerang, her heart skipped a beat- Ruesethra noticed something happen between Rue and Narcius, finally caught his boomerang back. It was only two days, two days she had been teaming with Narcius, then he was lying numb in front of her eyes. Her memories about him suddenly appeared as flashbacks; the first time she met him, how ill-mannered he was, the time Mira announced that Narcius was teaming with them, the coat he lent to Mint as she was passing out from injury, his never ending curses, and the courage he spat out before this battle. And, the [expletive] Ruesethra suddenly butted in the journey, taking Rue as a hostage, controlling his mind, humiliating him, and using him to fight Narcius and Mint. Ruesethra was the one who turned everything into complicated disasters.

Ruesethra was laughing out loud, he enjoyed how the victory sparked in his stomach. What should he say about it? Delicious? Maybe, yes. Although he didn't taste it with his disgusting tongue, the victory tasted delicious to him.

"See? See? He's dead! Such a good doll, Rue, well done! Mint, you know you're gonna eat my dust-and the soil too when you're dead, don't forget.." Ruesethra scolded Mint who was bowing her head.

'These are due to the [expletive] Ruesethra's faults..' One drop tear drained her right cheek.

"Now, prepare to meet your doom! HYAAH!" Ruesethra made the boomerang spinned at maximum velocity toward the orange-haired girl. She didn't seem to care about it.

Mint clenched her fist, she was trembling by maximum anger. She heard a buzzing sound was coming closer to her.

'[Expletive] you, Ruesethra.. [Expletive] you, son of a [expletive]..' More tears were flowing down her smooth face. If Mint could, she'd cry blood due to her terrible grief. She loathed the death, she saw it before and the sight made a deep scar in her memory.

That boomerang came closer and closer.. The irressitible wrath was creeping through her brain arteries, it was spreading quickly and finally bursting out of her mouth.

"[EXPLETIVE] YOU, RUESETHRAAAA...! I'LL-KILL-YOU!" Mint screamed furiously. Wylaf's voice was far to compare to hers. She turned to where Ruesethra was smiling in victory.

Ruesethra's eyes widened, evil smile still bloomed on his face. He watched as Mint's blood dripped soaking the ground under her feet.

TO BE CONTINUED..

You know what, I was listening to soundtrack in Carona Town at Threads of Fate when I wrote this. Oh my God, I miss this game so much, the emotion, the conflicts, everything! Though the game storyline was rather cliche, it really blends with my heart. T.T

Enough the nostalgics! Please review my story! Anonymous reviews are accepted! :D


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8! Yippie.. :D

ReLiC AnGeL : Err.. What about Narcius? Lol. XD

Celingfan : Oh-oh,, thank you so much! I really appreciate your review about this fanfic. I hope I can write better in English! :D

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"MINT! NO!" Rue yelled in horror as he observed Ruesethra's boomerang was about to hit Mint-exactly slice her like a cucumber. He was trapped in Mind Cabin, a cabin formed by mind controlling spell to prison the soul of anyone under that magic. The room had no wall, or door, or window. In other words, Mind Cabin was unlimited plain dark place, all you could see was yourself and a big mirror to watch what was happening out there.

Rue fell kneeling, he didn't know what to do anymore to break the spell whilst out there, Narcius was dying and he needed to be recovered immediately by Mint's Restore Health. Rue had tried all methods which came to his mind, but nothing appeared to succeed. He had tried to find a wall to destroy-however, the room had no limit as he walked away, but strangely the distance between the mirror and him didn't change even a meter. He even tried the focusing mind method, the same way he used to breaking Dolls Spell three months ago in Valen's Fortress and nothing changed. He was still standing there-trapped, hopeless, and clueless.

One thing he could do so far was stopping himself from killing Narcius-and it was damn hard since he had to be extremely focus plus a loud screaming plus super frowning forehead . He could stop the body, but he couldn't control himself to do any real action. Unfortunately, Narcius couldn't help the pain and blood loss, he finally passed out some moments ago. Rue feared the fact that Mint didn't stand a chance to defeat Ruesethra, then she and Narcius both died, then Ruesethra used him to release Applesweet. Oh, he was damn dizzy at the moment. It was still the second day of their journey, they already faced such a complicated intrigues and challenges.

Rue gazed the mirror and got startled. He couldn't believe what he saw. His breath stopped for a while, he didn't know why Mint didn't just run away..

"No way.. Mint! " his eyes widened for seeing the scene outside. Ah, she was always unreasonable! Rue could never understand her way of facing every single problem on the earth.

Out there, blood was flowing down one of four boomerang blades and fell to a mark at the ground as the weapon was stopped in force. The blood came from Mint's wound at her right hand, she was grabbing one blade while the other hand was holding the center part of it. She was too mad to feel the pain, her nerve didn't respond properly to any stimulus. All stimuli she could receive was the heat burning her chest and head as it was ready to erupt like a volcano. Her red burgundy eyes were shining in wrath and hatred, she really appreciated her eyes colour for the situation she was having.

Ruesethra was numb, his smile froze at his face as he saw the stunning action. He never saw such brave girl, exactly, reckless girl who caught a boomerang which was two meters in diameter and running full speed. That girl might be monster, she made him freak out for sure.

"What the [expletive] hell.. is going on?" Ruesethra whispered, his smile didn't even fade when he mentioned the curse. He was too surprised to erase any expression left in his face. Mint smirked cynically.

"The hell is a [expletive] place you're gonna be, Ruesethra.. Tch.. Whatcha gonna do without your [expletive] weapon, huh? Even if you beg for my forgiveness, you're just gonna get my ultra jumpkick then you'll arrive at the hell even quicker.." Mint released her hand from the boomerang, blood was immediately trickled from her wound like tea from its teapot. She glanced at her wound and calmly mumbled, "Huh, I'm hurt? Didn't realize.." Ruesethra's sweat dropped when he caught the ignorant words. She was not minorly injured, everybody would say she was injured badly. He had to admit, her reaction was rather horrible.

Ruesethra was trying to regain his confidence back, he laughed as if everything had been just fine and normal. His heart was beating fast and hard, he could feel the beat in his throat as if he had it there.

"I'm amazed, Young Princess.. " Ruesethra giggled mischievously, "but, you do realize I'm a powerful mind controlling magician, right? The boomerang is just one of my weapon. You can't defeat me that easily.." Ruesethra sounded threatening. However, her calmness didn't disappear that fast only by hearing his intimidating words. Nope, his words sounded defensive and anxious, how could such tones influence her bravery? She was set to finish him whatever he said.

"Wow, it seems like you're going to break the promise you made before.." Mint raised her shoulders.

Ruesethra, who was giggling before, suddenly bursted in laughter. He was still affected by Mint's sudden reckless action several minutes ago, that was why his laugh rather sounded like dog's barking. Mint shooked her head, she got boring of every seconds wasted to hear his riddiculous idiopathic laughters.

"Oh, puhleeaaassee.. Stop your [expletive] laugh, let's get to the point. FIGHT ME NOW, that's it." Mint impatiently yelled. Ruesethra did cried one drop tear, he thought Mint's words about him were extremely funny. He finally stopped laughing, but let a wide smile on his face. He was handsome, typical dolls' characteristic- but since he was troublesome, Mint saw Ruesethra was way worse than Frankenstein.

"How shallow you are, Princess Mint.. I won't break my promise about using mind controlling spell to you, but to him!" Ruesethra's thumb was directed to someone behind the princess. Mint sighed, she'd definitely kill Ruesethra right after the battle, she wouldn't let him live! Furiously, Mint stomped her foot and it made the dusts fly everywhere.

"Why the [expletive] don't you [expletive] face me on your [expletive] own! Are you [expletive] afraid, you [expletive] broken dummy!" Mint shouted, five curses in a row. Ruesethra acted like he was counting with fingers and shooked his head in a deep disappointed expression.

"Oh, my dear Princess.. You cursed three times in one sentence and five times in one breath! Tsk tsk tsk.. " he grinned annoyingly, "you know, I don't fight low class magician like you. Ha ha ha ha! Oh, I just wanna see who's gonna kill who.. I wonder, the Cursing Princess or the Idiot Doll? Dunno.. Hee-hee-hee.."

'What.. He sounded like Maya. Huh, evils tend to speak in the same way,' Mint had a trauma of any 'my dear...' phrases since Maya used them whole time.

Inside Mind Cabin, Rue growled in frustation. He punched the mirror many times, but it was still fine as ever. He knew in just next few seconds, he'd fight Mint, something he wouldn't do as a normal Rue. Rue knelt on the ground or floor or whatever-he couldn't mention what it was-and hit it with his fists. He was annoyed why he couldn't fight the spell, why he was easily kidnapped, why he couldn't be just normal human with boring life than being a stupid doll who could be controlled by spell, and many whys appeared one by one to his tired brain.

"Ekrah.." Rue whispered weakly, "Tell me how to stop this spell.. Ughhh.." He rolled aside and lied, hands and legs were spread. He glanced the mirror as he saw his body walk toward Mint. He stared at the girl worriedly. How long would they fight until Narcius finally died due to his wounds? Or, would he finally kill her? Would she finally defeated him and Ruesethra? Rue closed his eyes. He had no answers for all those questions since he had a big bunch of questions that day. He felt he was damn idiot, he was an idiot doll! He placed his hand on the forehead, sweeping sweat away.

"Rue.. Wake up, moron! I promise I won't kick you for that preverted smile, but please wake up.. Oh, [expletive].. He doesn't listen to me.." Mint was desperately begging Rue. He didn't answer, not even blinked the eyes. She didn't recognize the man anymore-Rue might be way too silent, but his eyes were always content of something.

"I'm listening to you, Princess Mint.." Rue smiled, patheticly talked to a mirror, or Mint who could never hear him. That was the first time he called her as Princess and he felt something tickle his tongue as he mentioned it. He watched as she cursed, he even laughed when she talked about his riddiculous smile-he really couldn't imagine how he finally did that, it was embarrassing!

"What should I do?" Rue sighed as Outside Rue stopped walking, he was face to face with Mint. Mint spinned one Dual Halo around her middle finger (actually, she was cursing), arrogantly exclaimed.

"You idiot, I'd defeat you for sure! Huh! Nobody ignores MY words!" Mint muttered the complaint, but she seemed not serious with her 'd never fight Rue that hard, though she didn't know either how the 'new' Rue would treat her. Inside Mind Cabin, Rue bowed his head and did a deep sigh.

"That's better than letting me kill Narcius and you.."

'Rue, don't worry.. I'll find a way to save you both..' Mint gazed the man before her, then Narcius. If she fought Rue, she'd be exhausted and wouldn't have enough energy to heal Narcius. He was very pale, Mint was sure she didn't have much time. She only had a chance before the battle, although it would be risking her strength. Restore Health was the most exhausting spell and she wasn't even sure how much it would take to heal those severe wounds.

"Rue, you know what I want from you. I order you to defeat her-whether you have to kill her or hurt her a lot until she's nearly died like him. That's your choice, my brother.." Ruesethra gave a devilish smile. Rue answered him with an obedient voice, "Yes, My Lord. I'm here to serve you."

Mint mumbled annoyedly, "What the [expletive] with the choices part. He didn't even give Rue a right to think. Tch.."

"After defeating her, find Ruegia and help him. Don't you ever think to defy me. If you do, I'll destroy you as well. I don't need disobedient doll, understand? Kneel and swear to me!" Ruesethra nodded for hearing Rue's loyal answer to him as the master. However, he seemed not more than an inferior person who was thirsty of dominating others, in Mint's personal opinion. Mint was hurt to see Rue kneeling and swearing before his new Lord, whereas someone as awesome as Rue could actually defeat Ruesethra easily.

"I swear with my whole life, my Lord," Rue passively keep talking whatever Ruesethra told him to. Mint rolled her eyes, she did want to steam roll Ruesethra the bastard. Ruesethra nodded again in satisfied expression and motioned a circle repeatedly. Suddenly, a huge transparent wall stood upright surrounding Mint, Rue, and Narcius.

"T-the hell? A cage!" Mint yelled at Ruesethra who was standing outside of the barrier. The doll raised an eyebrow, the wall didn't seem to be a cage.

"My dear Princess, that's not a cage, it doesn't even have a roof! I'm only making sure that you're truly a brave princess who would never run from your fight. See, I'm that good to you.."

"Errgghh! You said your stupid Dewprism fragment is broken! How could you make a barrier beyond mind controlling magic!"

Ruesethra smiled knowingly, "Mint, you're sure a shallow-minded one. Human's mind is the biggest barrier, you can do something or not, it depends on the mind. I control your brain to see a wall and you will never get out of your own mind, am I right? Ha ha ha ha.."

Mint stomped her foot in exasperation, "You break your [expletive] promise, dummy!"

Ruesethra put on a foolish face. "I'm not controlling you to surrender to me, that was the meaning of my promise. Barrier is absolute in a battle, if you can understand.." he raised his shoulders, fingers moved again. The transparent wall changed into solid wall made from stone, so much similar to the atelier. Mint was suspicious that the atelier wasn't real either. It was just how Ruesethra hampered their journey and gave much more time for Ruegia to find Bermoré and the item without any disturbances. In other words, the atelier was a mind trap.

'The atelier was merely his trick ! And, I led everyone to a trap.. What did I do?' Shortly after, deep repentance filled her up. So, she was the one who caused the troubles and if Narcius finally died, she was the one who killed him indirectly.

'Quite impressing, Mint.. I see you've realized about it. Blame yourself, just regret, you deserve it spoiling brat.. This wall is transparent, I can enjoy your funny face from here. Ha ha ha ha..' Ruesethra's voice came into her mind. Mint growled, feeling foolish, tricked, used, and many more emotions mixed in her chest. She couldn't accept the fact and the destiny brought by her stupid eyes. Mint shooked her head several times, the feeling made her hardly breathe and everything was spinning quickly.

'Now fight, so I can laugh more if you die at your best partner's hands..' Ruesethra spoke again, he added more guilts to an already guilty Mint. She wasn't finished with him when she heard someone run to her. Rue was ready to fight her, and so the battle between two best partners finally began.

'Alright.. No time for whining. I have to take care of Narcius, then fight Rue,' Mint held her Dual Haloes tightly. The plan was trying to rotate the rings in whatever condition, so when the rings were ready, she'd run to Narcius and release Restore Health spell. With two rings revolving and sparkling in her hands, she ran against the running Rue. At a glance, the scene was like two couples who finally met after such a long waiting, while in reality Rue and Mint were going to spill each other's blood until one of them lost the fight.

As Rue was close enough to the girl, he swung the Arc Edge with full power, that's when Mint had to work on her plan very carefully. There was no time to do any mistakes, since she had made the biggest mistake that day about the atelier.

"This is it!" Mint glided over the ground, passing Rue who found himself hacking an empty spot. The Dual Haloes made creaky sounds and more magical sparks radiated from the holes, Mint aimed her weapon to the so named Narcius who was lying unconciously several meters ahead-maybe somewhere out there, the Weird Sisters or Moirae were ready to cut his thread of life.

"Hyper, EUM RESTITUO!" Mint loudly screamed the spell. Dual Halos shone brightly and heavenly flash was shot on target. It made a noisy sound, nevertheless she could hear Rue's stomping feet to where she stopped and casted magic. That meant she couldn't stay any longer and had to finish the spell at once.

It was utter animal instinct in herself who moved her aside, right when Rue hacked at where she was sitting a second before. Since Dolls Spell unhid the hidden and deepest power of a doll, the range of the seemingly-ordinary hit radiated at the ground in two meters. When the Arc Edge touched the ground, in a blink, the spot cracked badly and sent a powerful force which was enough to throw Mint away like a piece of meat. She felt the warm breeze rubbing her skin, not in a positive way, and here the pain came. Mint landed with a loud bumping sound and rolled.

Several parts of her open skin were scratched and immediately some spots of blood appeared slowly. She was injured, but quickly got up although not in a steady position. She held her left arm to lessen the pain since she landed in the left side first and there was elongated wound from wrist to elbow.

"Alright, doll-boy! Say that we were partners, but now I am your enemy! You're soo dead!" Mint stomped her foot, although her typical movements bothered her so much-pain stormed badly at her legs. She looked down and found her legs were scratched everywhere.

Rue, without any signs, attacked her as if he had been agreed offhand about 'enemy' terms between them. Mint jumped off, her pigtails were floating in the air, and jumpkicked Rue at the face. That was a nice kick, although Rue's strength raised above his ordinary level, he did fall to the ground with a hint of blood at the corner of his lips. Mint prepared her rings to load the magic as he was trying to get back to the fight, then casted Drop Ice several times. That was her favorite spell, even Wylaf couldn't handle those hard icicles easily.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

Cold breeze was spreading through the raining icicles. Relief covered Mint with a thought that she did a brilliant thing. The feeling was just brief, just like what had happened to Narcius, Rue suddenly attacked her ragingly. Unconciously, she raised her Dual Halos and used them as repellents. A loud piercing 'ding' sound was sent to the air and echoed right when the holy weapons bumped one another.

The two was maintaining the position, both tried to push the other party. Rue seemed to win the fight, he pushed Mint backward slowly although the girl was holding on. She used two Dual Haloes to restrain Rue's huge Arc Edge, still it wasn't enough. Dual Haloes were not created for that purpose. She worried more about destroying her only weapon in the world when she vaguely heard chattering sounds from the twin things. If she just let go, her position wouldn't be safe and Rue could easily defeat her-even kill her-in one perfect slash. If she insisted to defend, she would definitely break Dual Haloes, that meant no more weapons for the rest of the journey.

Sweat formed as Mint concentrated too much. The girl couldn't stand the fight anymore, she used the old trick by swinging one foot to Rue's leg and unpredictably, Rue ate the trick and stumbled. Nevertheless, nothing could ever slow him-Rue got up in no time and quickly gave more dangerous hacks and slashes.

Mint was tired enough, she couldn't stay too far to use her rings because Rue would have quickly chased her wherever she fled away. He was injured badly by some of the spells which were done by Mint through all efforts. However, as long as mind controlling spell bound him, he would fight Mint till his or her last breath.

POW!

Mint desperately kicked Rue and continued with some hits, she actually realized, felt nothing to him. But, that was better than just waited to get a bad feedback and did nothing. As usual, the doll immediately stood up, no matter how many punches he got. The bruises and bloody marks decorated his face, he didn't care about them though. He was standing unstably, with any energies left, he tried to whack his enemy. Mint was having a strange thought that the fight had no certain end without killing. Rue had to kill her, that was the definition told by Ruesethra of completing the order. While Mint had to kill him too, he was controlled to accomplish every duty given by his Lord until the last droplet of blood.

Whilst Outside Rue didn't feel anything and survived like hell, Inside Rue was ailing due to the wounds. He was the real owner of the body, everything hurt him outside would hurt him as badly. He might not spill blood, but the pain was damn true. Mind controlling magic was sure incredible to put him in that awful situation.

Everybody knew Ruesethra and Ekrah were broken, but they had such unique ability which was better than physical magic. After all, they could do their duty better than any other assumed-as-perfect dolls, including Rue. Just say that however the two dolls named as Ruesethra and Ekrah were special dolls, no broken at all.

Back to Rue's terrible condition in Mind Cabin, without breaking mind spell, he wouldn't be able to break Dolls Spell as well. Ruesethra had predicted about this, that was why he doubled the spells.

"UGHH!" he groaned in pain when Mint casted Blowup Rocks, lots of black rocks were blown from her Dual Haloes and all of them was directed to Rue. She did that for few seconds, but it was almost forever to the doll's soul inside Mind Cabin. He had been curling on that cold floor since Mint's first jumpkick, breathing fast and growling when he had it too much. Outside Rue threw up and it was bloody, the same time Rue screamed due to a short sharp pain at the stomach.

'There's no other way.. I have to break the spell, but how? Now, I'm so much weaker after Mint's attacks, it's impossible to focus well..' he thought. He had asked using words 'why' and 'how' almost thousands of times that day, but he hadn't figured it out yet. Rue closed his eyes, a question came to his mind. Ekrah should've known about Ruesethra in Fire Forest, why didn't he tell anything about him? Or, he might never know whoever was placed to help Bermoré, Magnolia, Ajzör, and Essencia? Did he ever tell him about mind magic? Rue gritted the teeth and blamed himself for his absentminded self.

Suddenly, Rue opened his eyes. Yes, Ekrah ever muttered that. It was utterly clear in his memory how he said that.

'Don't ever let something trick your mind, Mint..'

That was true. He let Ruesethra lure him to the atelier and finally lock him with his ultimate spell. What he wanted only breaking the spell, he didn't know the essential of that magic. He was off-guard about Ruesethra's ability, that was why he became a perfect target to eat the spell. Unlike Mint and Narcius, they figured it out by seeing him under Ruesethra's absolute control, both were more difficult to get affected by any stuffs of his magic. Ruesethra made the promise since he wasn't able, not because utterly didn't want to. And, reading mind, it wasn't magic. Ekrah didn't use even a word to read Rue and Mint at the tavern, it was a natural telepathy.

Rue merely focused to break the spell whereas mind spell was absolute. Nobody could break it since the spell blended into his mind and, in simple words, he could never escape from his mind. The moment he stopped himself from killing Narcius due to he insisted to object the order to killing him. Mind spell was far different from Dolls Spell. Dolls Spell was greatly powerful, it could affect every doll whether he let it or not. Nevertheless, since it depended on the power, Rue could break it by focusing his power.

A smile appeared on his dolly face.

"I just need to expel this spell.."

Out there, Mint tripped over a stone and fell to the ground offhand. She sobbed for feeling how its sharp edge tore her skin abruptly. She was exhausted and needed life magic. She couldn't fight anymore.

She heard weak steps approaching her, that person was hurt badly too although he didn't show any expression on his face. Mint closed her eyes, she couldn't do anything about it. Maybe this was the end.. Maybe she should stop from being so arrogant and didn't say something she wasn't able to guarantee.. Maybe she was really low class magician..

She was covered by the person's shadow, he was standing against the sun. She didn't want to see, just let him finish his duty without her watching. A sound from the air as Arc Edge moved through was clear in her ears. She was ready, not really that ready, to accept the last hit. The feeling pinched her heart, same feeling when Skull Beast was ready to throw her down onto the dark endless cliff in Underground Ruins. and luckily, Rue saved the day. Back at the present, Rue was the one who tried to throw her into the cliff of death.

"Bye, Maya. Your life will be free from scrubbing the toilets.. Huh.. At least, I will never see pumpkins in this world anymore.." Mint mumbled her last words.

One second..

Two seconds..

Three seconds..

Four.. Five.. Six.. Seven.. Eight.. Nine.. Ten..

'The [expletive] is he doing..? What the heck was taking him so long?' Mint opened her eyes. Rue was standing still in front of her, the Arc Edge stopped an inch before her. She was confused, what was happening to this boy? He was posing like a machine that ran out of energy, stopping in the middle of his action.

Or, was he free already?

The empty look in his big brown eyes transformed into Rue's typical gaze. The eyes might change since he finally revived Claire, but Mint did recognize them. They were as complicated as the owner, always filled by mixtures of emotions. She had been hoping to see them ever since Ruesethra took the control of Rue.

"Rue?" such a soft voice from her mouth, calling the best partner who tried to kill her some minutes ago. The eyes blinked, Rue slowly put down the Arc Edge to wherever his hand directed it, as long as it wouldn't hurt Mint anymore.

"I've made it.." first sentence from Rue after such long hours he spent in Mind Cabin. He could see Narcius was lying not far from Mint and him, he was still unconscious but less pale. The freedom leapt in his chest, he was free for sure. He made it well on time.

Suddenly, the girl pulled him into a tight hug. His heart stopped beating for a second, he realized heat flowing through the blood in his body. That was another close contact with Mint and he would never get accustomed to it. She was warm and injected him with joy. Claire hugged him many times, but this was different. He didn't know why it was, the most important thing was he enjoyed the moment.

It was too short for Rue when Mint finally released the hug and stared with sobbing face. Nothing he could do, his mind went blank all of a sudden. Her face was only ten centimeters, the boy was able to look deep through her burgundy iris. It was the most beautiful colour he had ever seen. He held back his breath as she moved her hand to touch the face..

"YOU WHACKED ME DAMN HARD! YOU KNOW HOW MUCH IT HURT? WHAT TOOK YOU SO DAMN LONG! HIIIIHHHHH...!" Mint fervently and wildly and madly and furiously punched him. He couldn't count how much, nevertheless he knew that he accepted many. However, he did expect something way better than punches, since he thought that the princess would caress his face. Now, the hopes flew away, leaving him black and blue.

Finally, after some good hits from Mint-although they were more than just 'some'-she released Rue who was panting badly. The princess smiled in satisfaction, releasing complaints and anger was fun though. But, the reunion couldn't stay any longer. The wall degraded stone by stone quickly and revealed Ruesethra. He looked extremely upset for the failure of his spell.

"What I told you, doll? You've sworn to obey me!" He exclaimed loudly in wrath. Mint was surprised he could have such horrible expression. She was definitely unable to identify the mad man in front of her as ever-cheerful Ruesethra. Rue got up in a dashing way to face his ex-master, dismissed Mint with his hand from uttering her best curses.

"That wasn't me who swore the words. That was you who talked through my mouth.." he answered him calmly. Ruesethra ignored his words and underestimatingly laughed.

"My magic is ABSOLUTE! How could a low doll like you break my spell! That's impossible! AARRGGHH!" his voice was getting more frustrated, he didn't expect it to happen. The only thing he knew that his mind controlling magic was absolute. Nobody would disobey his words once he grabbed the person's mind.

Rue shooked his head and smiled. He thought Ruesethra know the weakness, it surprised him to find that the Ekrah's apprentice was too proud to realize any faults.

"Now, obey me! Imperium animo!" Ruesethra pointed his finger toward Rue. Mint gaped, she was afraid that Rue would fall under the insane doll's control again. The imagination about fighting Rue again made her tremble. She wouldn't stand a chance to win!

"I don't want your spell. Get out from my head.." Rue objected him so easily. Ruesethra then froze for hearing those simple words. He wondered how such negligible sentences could break his spell.

"You.. You don't want? The heck! You have to accept my spell once I said Imperium Animo!" Ruesethra exclaimed in disbelief.

"Ekrah told us to not get easily tricked. I thought you didn't use the magic to my friends since you know you couldn't.." Rue raised one eyebrow.

"Why should I use my holy phrases to fleas like them!" Ruesethra yelled. That meant Ruesethra was not the brainy one, but only mere doll who bragged about his only special magic. Mint got up and rotated her rings, she was about to finish Ruesethra.

"You! Imperium animo! Fight that stinking doll!" Ruesethra then pointed on Mint. He unwisely broke the promise to not using mind spell to Mint. The girl who was being pointed by him laughed cynically, she was imitating Ruesethra's laugh.

"Man, when would you ever learn? Ekrah should've taught you nothing but trivial spells, now you think you're big time? Eat my big time dash! Mortifera impetum!" the girl stormed toward Ruesethra who was still blaming his failure in disbelief. Deadly magical black glitters surrounded Mint and followed her movement smoothly.

"EAT-THE-DUST, [EXPLETIVE]!" she attacked that man with her favourite way, jumpkick. It was extremely powerful that the jumpkick pushed him backward and hit a tree with a loud crashing sound. The ground shaked as he moved, the tree where he stopped cracked and it was divided into two not-so-equal parts.

"No.. way.. I can't lose.." the words came out of his lips, he could feel blood soaking his back. Deadly Dash broke his skull and spine, he was having a terrible pain and hemorrhage. Tears began to form at the corner of each eye.

'I'm sorry, my Lord. At the end, I'm just a mere broken doll..' he apologized with a great grief and hatred to himself. He should not have been created since the first chance.. However, at least he had obeyed Valen to guard the forest. Ruesethra closed his eyes. At the same time, his fragment let out a faint flash and died with the doll. He turned into thousands of magical sparkles and spread through the damp air of Fire Forest. That was how Ruesethra finally accomplish his serving as Doll of Valen.

"... He is truly devoted to Valen. I really appreciate his loyalty," said Rue, breaking the awkward silence.

TO BE CONTINUED

Ermm.. In the middle of the story, I lost my inspiration to continue! =.=' Dunno why, huh, but I tried to finish what I've begun. ^^ At least the evil ones lose and the good ones win!

Oy, I remember about telling that some spells ever written in this fanfiction were taken from Latin, although I did modificate some of them.. =D

Alright, and about disclaimer, I don't own Threads of Fate and original characters from the game.. =)

Please send your reviews, I really appreciate every words from you.. We learn from mistakes and we work from compliments! ^o^


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9..! =D Hmphh,, it was at the beginning of September when I first published this fanfiction (=.=). Many thanks to ReLiC AnGeL and Celingfan, I'm happy to have your reviews! =D I thought nobody would read my fanfiction. T.T

Disclaimer : Threads of Fate from Squaresoft - now Square Enix.

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"There's no point for you to walk, Narcius.. We can wait until you feel much better."

The red spiky haired man shooked his head fervently. He just woke up several minutes after Ruesethra's death and his face was still a tad exhausted and pale. That was the pride of a man, too much pride to confess his pain. He already tried to stand, but even slouching could terribly hurt him. However, he didn't say a word and kept surviving to stand up until finally almost fell back falteringly, he was lucky Rue caught his arms. The situation was too awkward for Narcius, he disliked the feeling of weakness. For God's sake! He was a great Trap Master (duh..) and he accepted help from a dolly boy, although Rue was not ordinary doll (even stronger than him), but dolls reminded him to child's play.

"Why so stubborn, Narcie? You can just say 'Alright, wait for me' or 'I'm sorry, I can't even move'.." Mint slightly gave a mocking gaze. Narcius was about to yell at her, but the pain stopped him from doing it. His hand moved to touch where he was sliced. It was as normal as before superficially, but the deep tissues were not healed that perfectly.

"Sshh.. Mint! Don't start a fight.." said Rue sternly to the saucy princess.

"Why me! That's always me! Grrrhh!" Mint stomped her foot, she was annoyed by Rue's words. If she didn't use Restore Health, Narcius would have been floating with other dead souls somewhere. Probably, a creepy place like that really existed, it was just another silly imagination by Mint.

"..." Rue and Narcius joined in a silence, there was no reason to argue with Mint, they would lose the debate for sure. Her princess status made her hardly accept objections. Mint, on the other hand, thought in different way. She was rather ashamed since she seemed to be the only one who didn't understand the situation. Narcius was insufficient to walk the journey, no buts about it.

She rubbed the back of her head and broke the silence by such ignorant tone as if she hadn't spoiled around before.

"Could anybody tell me where we are?"

Rue glanced her with an unexplainable look in his deep brown eyes. Then, he raised the shoulders offhand.

"Nope. But, I think we're back to the place where we began today. Uhm.. That's only my opinion," he said calmly. Mint raised an eyebrow for hearing his answer, she didn't catch it.

"That means, we were just walking on some bogus pathways to a bogus atelier of Ruesethra. Now he's dead, we're sent back to the real place.." he answered Mint's question even before she asked about it without staring at her. He could guess the next scene would be mere stomping foot. He was wrong about it though.

"Oh, [expletive].. Are you kidding me?" Mint cursed and staggered. So, the hours they spent without utterly getting anything but injuries and miseries were just bull? Ruegia might be somewhere ahead of them, if they didn't move, that would be possible this Applesweet Army would get the item first.

"No, I'm not." Rue didn't know what kind of insanity which was ruling his brain, but he knew he couldn't resist her curses and whines any longer. She was not the only one who suffered much, nevertheless she acted as if she had been the one who was through many difficult things.

"Shut up! I don't need your riddiculous answer! Why don't you say something helpful, dummy?"

"If you wish to continue the journey immediately, why don't you use the healing spell to him once again? And don't call me dummy, please."

"What? Again? I don't even have enough energy to heal myself!"

"So stop whining."

"How dare you! You were the one who fought me! If you weren't easily kidnapped by the cupids, we should've been getting closer to the item!"

"We all were walking in his trap. I've told you just now about the bogus forest, that wasn't any of my faults. Didn't your brain catch what I said, Mint?"

"Why don't you just stop replying me!"

"And why the [expletive] won't you stop that stupid quarrel! Man, I'm getting dizzy by hearing your childish voice!" Narcius frustratedly butted in the tensed chit chats. He had enough of them, suddenly he missed the mysterious Karwyn and well-mannered Kirielle. At least, they didn't talk much.

And so, another awkward silence floated again in the air. Mint finally sat, a sign as she agreed to wait. Rue walked away somewhere, surprisingly being annoyed, most possible by Mint's never ending hardheadness. The girl apparently realized about it and sighed in regret. She shouldn't add fire into the situation, they were in the same position, tired and disappointed.

"Hey," Narcius called Mint, "how did the bastard finally die?" He was trying to lessen her anxiety, he had no reason to have a cold war with his life saviour. Mint glanced him with invisible relief in her eyes, at least she wasn't alone. She thought Narcius would follow Rue and joined the silent act.

After some minutes of explanation and fun chatters, Mint felt so much better. That was the first time they talked in peace without curses but with smiles and laughs.

"Ya know, I'm not asking both of you to wait for me.. But, Man, I don't know. I feel that you do care about my condition, that's why you keep staying here," Narcius smiled weakly. Mint's heart almost sank, she finally felt the friendship bond with him. The spunky princess then punched him playfully.

"Don't get me wrong, Porcupine! I'm just not that heartless.. Unlike the one who is standing there.." Mint looked at Rue with angry eyes. The arguements made her nudge again about the battle. Unfortunately, Rue caught the words precisely and turned back, so much offended by her words.

"What you just said about me? What's my fault, Mint?" Rue's voice raised one pitch higher. Narcius closed his eyes in surrender, "Not again.."

While Mint showed an ignorant face which was too annoying to handle, especially by Rue. "What? Did I say something? Why so serious, Rue.. Maybe that's why you become Doll of Valen and Doll of Ruesethra, huh?" She did succeed raising his tone two levels louder. Yes, finally, Rue shouted at Mint.

"Stop calling me Doll of Valen! Why do you keep talking about it? Weren't we finished about that, huh?"

"Finished? Easy for you, but you made us in a hard time! See these injuries and what you've done to him, you did it on purpose! Is it still that simple in your mind?"

"THAT WAS NOT ME! I was under the magic control, for God's sake, Mint! Do you think that I myself control my hand to hurt you and Narcius?"

"That's because you're too weak to get free from the spell immediately!"

"If it wasn't me who stopped the spell, you would have been DEAD right now!"

"So, you're now regretting for saving us! [EXPLETIVE] DOLL!"

"Not us, but you! You're so proud of yourself and arrogant! You're the one who always argued and complained! Your presence bothers Narcius and me!"

BOOOMMM!

"Ouch!" Mint yelled as she landed on the ground and bumped her head. It was no serious though since the explosion was a bluff too. Whilst Rue could jump away in a warrior way, however he landed unexpectedly on his butts. Even a true fighter like him couldn't handle the unpredictable attack easily.

Smoke was formed around Narcius. He reached out of it and swung his hand aside to reveal his angry face. It wasn't nice to see, of course. He frowned badly and gritted teeth, gazing his teenager teammates with the murderer eyes. Mint thought he suited the name "Angry Porcupine"- she really had no certain circumstances to mock him, almost anytime anywhere anyhow.

"YOU MORON! CHILDISH! THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Narcius yelled in maximum exasperation. He didn't understand why they had to argue in front of him who actually needed peace and a little rest, eventhough he didn't confess about it. Narcius could be so immature sometimes, but the fact still showed 'the older you are, the more mature you will be' was damn true. He was around 22 years old and the other teammates were 16 to 17 years old. Nevertheless, that didn't mean he had to babysit them.

He was about to exclaim the wrath in his brain when something from the inside urged him to cough. The tapping foot movement worsened his half-healed wounds and he ended up coughing blood. Mint and Rue got up immediately and helped him, he was losing his stability.

Blood trickled and drained out of the right hand which was used to cover his mouth. It was rather black, unlike the usual blood. That was a creepy situation for Mint, she had never seen such blood colour. 'It must be painful! Poor Procupine..' However she still had the sympathy with her. It was so true that the regret always came after the mistakes, Rue and Mint glanced each other in a mixture of worried and forgiving eyes. They were worried as hell about Narcius and forgave one another at the same chance.

Instead of getting calm, Narcius would rather waste his energy merely to lecture both of them, "Then if you argued again, should I cough blood to stop you? Hey, you ain't eight years old kids anymore! Why the hell so easily picked by your anger? Huh, next time you fight again, I would stuff spiky balls into your contentious mouths! They better get ripped than used for vicious circle of some imbecile arguements! IDIOT!" Well, it was rather impressing since he usually talked nonsense and cursed, but without him realizing, at the moment his words were wise and honest. No one even squeaked to deny Narcius even when he called them moron, idiot, imbecile..

Shortly after, they had been wandering again through the darkness of Fire Forest. It was clear enough that Narcius objected the chance to rest and wait, everybody knew a Trap Master would always wait, but somehow he acted different. Mint rolled her eyes as she was thinking about it too. 'Why can't he just confess? He's weak, for my butt's sake! Tch..'

The forest was getting darker in every steps. Rue could hardly see anything ahead, he almost stumbled over some things he wasn't even able to identify. He moved by following the sound of Narcius' feet as he walked. Didn't want to lose anybody in the darkness, he reached out his hand to grab Mint's arm behind. The girl shouted arrogantly.

"Now what! Don't try to do anything perverted to me, dummy!" She tried to pull back her arm, but Rue held her tightly.

"Don't separate. And no more dummy, I'm begging you! Huh.." She frowned for hearing the answer. Nothing could ever explain better than his tone of voice- Rue was still annoyed. However, they didn't proceed to quarrel since Narcius made a loud 'ahem' before them. Realized they almost argued again, Rue let go of Mint's arm, then finally the two gathered in silence.

DANG! "UGHH!"

Narcius groaned in surprise when he bumped into something extremely solid. He caressed his aching forehead and kicked the thing in revenge. Rue observed it as a gate consisted by iron bars or something as hard. It was black- unclear whether it was painted or naturally black- and really really high. He tried to find its peak, but its highest point blurred in the darkness. The knob was mossy and rusty in some places, strangely it was slimy too.

"Dammit! I couldn't see a thing!" Narcius rubbed where a small painful bump began to form. There was nothing wrong about it, the gate was too black to see and everybody shouldn't realize its presence until they made contact. Unfortunately, Narcius made a rough contact with it.

CLICK!

"Hey, Mint! Who told you to open this gate?" Narcius yelled as the girl somehow had stood beside him and opened the gate without hesitation. Mint shooked her head, denying what she had done. "I was just testing the knob.. It opened before I touched this [expletive] thing, you hear!"

While Rue kept staring at the holy gate. Even in the dark, he was able to declare it as one beautiful creation. The carvings were made carefully, complicated but impressing. Such a fine mysterious art, though. Was it leading them to Cave of Darkness? Or, was it the end of the entrance gate they saw earlier? The second question didn't seem really nice to hear. If that was the end, did they miss the Cave of Darkness? The musing ended as Narcius waved his hand before Rue's serious face.

"Rue! Are you alright? Let's go!" one of his foot already threspassed the area behind the gate. Rue didn't give an answer immediately, he seemed to have a bad/right feeling about this. Something behind the gate might have been waiting to attack them, that was the bad prediction. The good feeling, the gate would definitely led them to Cave of Darkness. Ever tricked before by Ruesethra with his fancy atelier, Rue didn't want to be off guard anymore.

Rue nodded unnoticeably and walked together with Narcius through the gate. Just like the first gate at the beginning of Fire Forest, that gate suddenly slammed and locked itself. Rue quickly rushed to reach the knob, but the thing moved even faster. Desperately he tried to open the gate again, though after some experiments, they turned out to be useless. The gate still stood upright in a mighty way.

"Everything in this dammit forest could move involuntarily.." Narcius sighed in defeat. Rue nodded, didn't bother to make a sound. Not so calm, actually. He was anxious because something was missing in this situation-although he didn't know what it was. Nah, maybe he had to stop thinking and started to do something like Narcius. The man in yellow coat was searching for something. As he walked towards him, Narcius turned to Rue and his face was frowning worriedly.

"Where's that dirty mouth princess? Man, I saw her some minutes ago walking here and now she's gone! Psh! What a crap.."

Rue saw her too and didn't expect Mint to disappear that fast. What was she thinking? He had told her not to separate, even being together didn't guarantee their lifes. Nobody among the three had figured out what would happen there. So clueless, and one more negative side was they got trapped!

"Arrgghhh...!" A girl's shriek came from a small alley nearby. Rue glanced Narcius who glanced him back, then both rushed to the same spot. That was Mint's voice and something might have attacked her.

The next scene was not as bad as they imagined, but it wasn't nice either. Mint was standing falteringly, whilst some weird monsters surrounded her. Narcius showed a confused look as he saw the creatures were plants- not ordinary plants though. That monster was called Flo, taken from word 'flower'. They had two froggy legs, one wavy edge circular mouth and blooming flower on top of the head.

"The heck is this? Valen and friends really really got no taste! Tch.." Narcius moved his sight upside down, evaluating the monsters' funny form. Rue had been helping Mint, she coughed continuously.

"These [expletive] had no manner! (Uhhmmpphh..) They produce such poisonous gas and it made me all nauseous! (Uhmmpph..) Huh, but I still made killing three!" Mint held her stomach, several times trying to hold the nausea. Without buts, Narcius gave one knock on her head.

"You, Brat! How many times should we told ya, NEVER SEPARATE! Now you get what you deserve!" said Narcius with merciless tone. His face showed the same expression. It didn't mean he wasn't worried, on the contrary, he was extremely worried about Mint.

"At least, I found the other gate! See?" Mint pointed her slim finger to something tall not far from them. That was definitely the twin from the gate before, logically it should be the way out. Rue immediately got ready with his extraordinary designed axe. Without alarming the others, he rushed forward and attacked the plants really bad. In just one blink, the dolly boy finished all enemies. Narcius and Mint was standing with open mouth, frankly admitted who was the real boss by showing two thumbs up. Rue acted so-damn-Rue by giving the silence as an answer, collected the magics flying in the air, and gave a head sign to get closer to the gate.

Mint shooked her head, "No, duh.. You forgot something, eh?" She took out the golden rings and aimed it at Narcius. The rings rotated at each other, bringing a bright shine into the darkness. Rue could clearly see the surrounding which was exactly better to stay in the dark. Lots of bones, monsters' and human's skulls were hung at the trees, some was arranged into several piles. 'Those plants ate meat? No wonder, they are monsters.. But it still doesn't make sense to me..'

"Hyper - EUM RESTITUO!" The Dual Haloes shot its healing magic and brought Narcius to his best condition. Although it might be utter imagination, he could feel something torn unite again as if nothing had happened. That was refreshing. Narcius opened his mouth to gratefully say thanks, but something howled under the ground where Rue was standing.

"RUE, RUN!" Mint screamed two words she could ever think, at the same time that spot cracked and something appeared from the underground. She shouldn't worry about Rue, his instinct and reflex worked best. He rolled in the air and landed precisely between the other teammates.

How should they describe the creature? It was huge, slimy, pinkish, transparent, pulsating, and growling. They didn't even know whether it was a solid one or semisolid- it looked rather similar to jelly pudding who mutated into terrible jelly monster. No hands or any signs of mouth or feet. Only a vertical eye as big as adult's palm was shining yellowish on a part considered as head. However, one thing made him look so special, a golden key was hung as a part of ugly rope necklace surrounding (again) a part considered as neck. Valen named it Guggel, the name matched perfectly with its consistency.

"Houhow? Hooouuww?" it howled, maybe it was speaking but poor, noone understood. Mint turned to Narcius, "Errr.. It's talking?" Narcius raised an eyebrow and shooked. Maybe yes, maybe no.

"Shall we fight this thing?" Mint asked in disbelief, that monster was singing with high pitch howl. Rue nodded, his face was full of certainty, "It has the key of that gate. There's no other way." Mint laughed cynically and underestimated her opponent. "Piece of cake.." Inspite of its cute jelly appearance, Rue still considered about Guggel's ability- cute was merely appearance, Guggle might be a dangerous one behind its jelly form. However, Mint couldn't wait any longer for her next stunning action. Imitating Rue, she rushed then jumped without warning the others toward the innocently standing Guggel.

"No, Mint! Wait!" Rue yelled to forbide the reckless princess, but it was too late. Narcius sighed of seeing her action, did she want two thumbs up too or what? Couldn't she just let Rue win the attention alone?

"YEAAA! Eat my jumpkick, baby!" Mint shouted confidently in the air when unpredictably Guggel was dividing the central part of its body, to where Mint aimed her attack, into a deep tunnel- Mint slipped into the hole with her loudest scream echoed in the air. Narcius exclaimed as the temporary hole united again and prisoned Mint in Guggel's body. In other words, she was engulfed by jelly monster- and in further addition words, Guggel was about to eat her alive.

No need to wait anymore, Rue and Narcius attacked Guggel in whatever ways. But, physical attack using Arc Edge was useless, Guggel loved to engulf anything and that weapon almost ended in its pinkish body. Spiky balls were swallowed, although it was sent out several minutes later. Rue finally found the creature who messed with the bones- merely single jelly monster which was truly a carnivore.

"Explode it, Narcius!" Rue screamed in Alato form, he had tried to burn Guggee and got nothing. Narcius yelled back in surprise.

"Explosion will kill Mint, you idiot!"

Right when Narcius said the last word, Guggel's jelly body formed a hand to catch Rue. Rue flew away from Guggel's hand, but unpredictably that hand elongated. Rue could be best in reflex, nevertheless he couldn't fly backward too far without getting off guard. He bumped to a tree and that was how the monster reached its prey. Its hand brought Rue joining Mint and just disappeared after doing its task. Now, Guggel had two lovely foods ready to be digested inside of it. The second time Narcius' mouth gaped open that day. He had to fight Guggel by himself and the only way he could think would risk the other teammates' life.

He couldn't stop opening his mouth when several minutes later, two bubbles were formed around Rue and Mint. Not those kind of bubbles played by kids, it was a type of digesting organ. Rue was trying to tear the hole before it did any digesting action, sometimes he spoke to Narcius although the man he was talking to couldn't hear a thing. Narcius frustratedly scratched his head.

"Dammit! This is really a bull! [Expletive]!" Narcius watched as the bubbles then acted strangely. He wasn't sure at the beginning, but some minutes later, it was clear that those crappy bubbles shrinked slowly and pressed the air in it. It was going to squeeze Rue and Mint into nice bloody pulps for the hungry Guggel.

"[Expletive] it! Don't eat them, moronic jelly!" Narcius tapped his foot and..

BOOM!

The right side was destroyed a bit, yet quickly regenerated completely. Regeneration! What a perfect silly jelly thing! Narcius was getting insane. He tapped foot again and broke more, though it wasn't sufficient enough to damage the bubble containing Rue. That was so close and it made him nervous as hell. However, time ran out really fast, he didn't have time to plan. Just one small mistake in directing his explosion, he would be the one who change Rue into bloody pulps, instead of Guggel's digesting bubbles. For God's sake, this monster annoyed him so much!

The bubbles shrinked further, Rue and Mint desperately pushed back. Outside of Guggel, Narcius still couldn't make his way to release any of them. Guggel disliked Narcius for disturbing its most enjoying digesting moment, it formed a hand again and tried to apprehend Narcius. Narcius sighed anxiously when Guggel created one more hand. That monster used two hands to clap him like a mosquito! 'Two hands.. Alright, two hands! Isn't it too much?' Narcius sweatdropped.

Those hands were getting closer to catch him..

Bubbles were proceeding to digest his fellows..

And all he could say was..

"DAAMMMNNN!" Narcius tapped his foot toward Guggel and blew it up badly. Its body exploded in the air and fell to the ground like jelly pudding rain. Narcius covered his face with left arm from the horizontally thrown pieces, he almost puked by the odor. Instead of good-scented like strawberry pudding, Guggel's pieces smelled like rotten corpse. As soon as it stopped falling, he really threw up.

"EEYUCK!"

Narcius found Mint sitting in the middle of pinkish pieces with disgusted face, whilst Rue stood and sweeping some pieces from his clothes. He was relieved the other teammates were fine. The only problem left was the key. It should have been somewhere in this jelly pool.

"What took you so damn long? I was almost squeezed off like a [expletive] tube of toothpaste!" Mint didn't wait any longer to yell at him, whilst Narcius completely ignored her.

"Oy, you two! Find the key!" Narcius gave a quick command, he himself was kicking off a pile of Guggel's jelly pieces. However, they didn't find it anywhere. The key was gone without a hint.

"Crap.. Where's this [expletive] key?" Mint was squatting with hands working on the pieces. She grabbed one big piece of Guggel desperately and examined it as if the key could have been stuck inside. She felt a strong pulse from that thing which immediately freaked her out for sure. Narcius and Rue stopped searching, both of them looked at her in such curious gaze.

Mint pointed at the piece, her hands were trembling. "I-i-i-i-i-t-t's-s-s sti-l-l a-a-l-i-v-v-v-e-e!" Narcius raised the eyebrow and frowned. 'What is this bossy brat talking about? Oh-'Narcius stopped mumbling in his mind when the piece Mint had been pointing, started to fly forth to other pieces. After whatsoever attacks, Guggel was trying to regenerate itself back into the complete form. Rue hacked one big flying piece, it was shattered but nevertheless quickly formed the bigger one together with other flying pieces.

Among those pinky jellies, a golden coloured thing joined the reformation too. It was the gate's key. Strange enough they didn't find it, but as the owner regenerated, it suddenly flew from nowhere.

"CATCH THAT THING!" Narcius leapt to reach the dashing key, poorly he caught nothing but the wind. The next catcher was Rue, but that thing slipped through his hand and kept proceeding to arrive at Guggel. However, it wasn't Rue if he gave up easily. The doll chased the key that never slowed down a bit. Rue wasn't quick enough compared to the key, while it was getting closer to three-quarter-complete Guggel.

"It's MINT to the rescue!"

Mint placed herself some meters before the key and spinkicked it really good. That key rolled backward in the air, lost its destination, until finally landed on Narcius' hand. Guggel's regeneration was 90% accomplished when he rushed to the gate and tried to unlock that biggy door. It was extremely hectic and also painful- the gate's key was alive, wild, and teethful. Narcius had to resist the pain as it insanely gnawed his fingers. Instead of releasing that disastrous key, he insisted to unlock the gate whatever happened. Better got bitten than got squeezed alive by Guggel.

He heard clicking sound as a sign that he finally unlocked the gate, that was when Guggel finally regenerated completely. That monster didn't howl cutely anymore, it roared like a big carnivore dragon. Yeah, well, what animal would stay kind as ever if you took over its foods and broke the animal into hundreds of pieces?

Guggel jutted out three sticks as thick as thirty centimeters and it swung those things toward its ex-foods. Rue made to slice one- it united back into Guggel's body- but the other one slammed him at the back. It was Rue's good luck or bad, but he landed right before the gate where Narcius had been waiting behind anxiously.

"Hey, come on, Mint! We have to leave now- oucch!- Oh, CRAP!" he dropped the key which quickly fled from him. His hand was soaked by his own blood, some black holes where the key madly gnawed before were hardly seen in the middle of bloodstream.

On the other party, Mint endeavoured to escape from those three jelly slamming sticks and laser beam from Guggel's only eye. Several times the sticks suddenly changed into a huge hand which tried to trap Mint again and so many times the laser burnt her supple tadly tanned skin- leaving poignant dark red patches. Everytime she got closer to the gate- Rue and Narcius had been reaching their hands out to pull her away- Guggel always effectively slammed her backward. The pretty yet spoiled princess rolled like a ball as she landed and finally laid in exhaustion.

Three Guggel's hands elongated toward Mint and buzzed as they splitted the air in full speed. No time for even a brief rest, Mint made every effort to get up and run away to the gate. Just like the other escaping trials she had done, Guggel shot the laser right in front of her, but this time she stumbled over it and fell to Rue's and Narcius' hands. Her teammates quickly pulled her out of the arena and so the Guggel extended its hand angrily to catch the escaping disobedient foods. Fortunately, that monster somehow couldn't pass through the gate. Guggel roared in anger and hunger to watch those delicious foods stand out of its safe zone.

The three fellows gazed back at the monster as it slowly sank back into the underground and disappeared. Mint bowed and placed her hands on the knees, she was breathing deeply. Sweat drained rapidly from temples down to the jaw and finally dripped off her face.

"Huff.. huff.. heave.. huff.. heave.. That [expletive] jelly thing is nuts! [Expletive].. I'm tired.."

Narcius raised his shoulders in the same favor. "The key was a bull too! Ouch.." He gazed the mess at his hand and cursed," Crappy [expletive] key!" Fortunately, he didn't use weapon by the hand, so that it didn't bother him too much.

"Why a mere key could hurt you that good?" Mint scolded Narcius with her nasty smile. Narcius, again, loathed every statement about his weakness- the only word he ever hated too much since he first had a memory was 'weak'.

"Tch! Good? That key is [expletive] alive and it's damn catastrophy meat termite!" Narcius defended his pride, although however he told the truth. Mint showed a mocking expression toward Narcius, then pulled out a roll of bandage and some medical potions from her backpack. Several minutes after, Mint had been working carefully on his wounds. Narcius smirked to Rue knowingly, whilst the doll he was grinning threw the gaze anywhere else, except at Narcius and Mint.

'Why does she really care about Narcius? She's always unreasonable..' the grumbling thought burnt his chest. He shooked his head to drive the thought away, but it never stopped claiming his brain again. In such endless confusion about him, he held the forehead and mumbled softly, "What's wrong with me?"

"Hey, Rue! You're hurt too!" He heard the soft voice calling him and turned to see Mint point at a long scratch at his left arm. 'Oh..' he didn't realize it before, maybe it was the result from Narcius' explosion. Instead of accepting Mint's help, Rue pulled his arm away from her.

"This is nothing. I can handle it."

Mint frowned sadly, she supposed Rue wasn't over with the tensed arguements they had before. Though she was fond of having arguements, she never wanted it with Rue- although she was okay doing it with Narcius. Rue's anger was deeply-heartstabbing cold silence, way worse than hot curses or yells from Narcius.

That was the kindness of Narcius as he broke the silence with a new spirit. "Alright! Let's focus again to the [relic]!" He gave some friendly pats on Rue's shoulder, regarding the murderer eyes Rue gave in return as the boy gazed him back. Narcius was old enough to care less about kid's manner, no point for him to reply such childish act.

They walked again through the forest and soon arrived at a different area, they were facing a straight wide pathway which its right and left sides were lined by tall trees- so tall that the trees could possibly kiss the clouds above. Rue stepped forward, ready to enter the pathway, then suddenly something shining brightly in golden flash appeared on the ground where he was standing. Getting startled, he jumped back to the other teammates and set to be fully aware.

"These are ancient letters," Mint spoke solemnly, "they're carved beautifully and activated by stomping foot."

"Can you read it? Because, I can't understand these weird letters.." Narcius shooked his head in defeat, but soon exclaimed proudly," Oh, it's an E, right?"

"No, Porcupine. That's a comma. Oh, don't ever guess anymore. You're too low-grade for this.." Mint replied, not even glancing him. 'WHAT DID THE BRAT JUST SAY? DAMN! Alright, just because I'm blind about this literature, I'll spare her life this once to read it!' Narcius gritted teeth when he heard Mint's insulting words.

Mint squatted to concentrate more with the queer alphabets.

"I thought you didn't understand about the ancient literature.."

Mint turned to see Rue was talking normally to her- so much surprised since she thought he would speak coldly to her for the rest of the Fire Forest journey. Feeling relieved as hell, she hid her face by pretending to focus on the letters again, "Err.. Those three months I spent in East Heaven, Maya and Dad forced me to learn about every lessons I didn't do before being dethroned, including the ancient literature. This one was the basic and simplest type, that's why I can read it.."

"So, what do the letters say?"

"The title is 'Heaven and Hell'. It says, 'All you the low lifes, you are two and you are one. Two is not less, two is not more, two is what the Heaven needs. If you leave one, the one shall be burnt in hell. If you put two, the two will be despised by the hell. Heaven lies in the middle of your face, hell burns in your filthy hands. Two no worry in Heaven, yet one shall cry blood in hell. Accept your destiny, destiny is a son of Fate, Fate is a daughter of Heaven.' Well, that's weird.." Mint felt the pique flowing in her nerves, "who cares if destiny is a son of fate? Don't these words mean the same?"

Narcius laughed cynically, "This stupid poetry should be entitled One and Two, instead of Heaven and Hell! What a dumbass who created this thing!" Rue wasn't able to interpret the poetic words either, maybe it was some kind of joke. The poetry wasn't reasonable enough to have their attention. Heaven? Hell? Nobody even knew where those places were! Did it have something to do with them? Mint was right, who would care about it? Moreover, the poetic guardian one was Ajzör and it didn't live here.

"Alrighty~! Let's go, fellas!" Mint ran toward the pathway when..

CRACK!

A square of ground where she stomped her boots flipped over 180 degrees and, pronto, Mint disappeared before their eyes. Utterly no time for mere begging-for-help scream.

"MINT!" Rue and Narcius exclaimed in horror. Since the bond between Rue and Mint was stronger than Narcius, Rue rushed offhand to the square which had flipped Mint away and once again, Narcius watched as Rue got flipped over and disappeared too.

"DAMN! What's going on in this [expletive] forest!" Narcius pinched down his cheeks frustratedly- it left reddish fingers mark on his face. He didn't know what to do. Should he catch up? Or, should he avoid the flipping ground and keep up the journey by himself? What a havoc! In this hectic situation, he should be a prudent man. 'They would save me without thinking if I were on their feet, right? Right. That's so damn true..' Narcius remembered what his teammates had done for his life. There was no reason for him to be a brazen man, every good law in the world would oblige him to save them through whatsoever events.

With heavily beating heart, Narcius walked toward the vicious square. The moment gave him chills in the back, he was scared yet he had to be brave. Narcius closed his eyes as he arrived at the square, waiting for the flipping movement. Huh, maybe he would bump his head again, he should be careful.

Ten seconds passed. Nothing happened. Narcius opened his eyes in confusion and angrily stomped his foot at the ground. Maybe it was broken or something. The ground was still as quiet as the other ground.

"T-the HECK! Come on! OPEN UP! HEEEYY! I say, OPEN UP, [EXPLETIVE] SQUARE!" He even changed his stomping foot- from right to left, from left to right, or both of them- but it didn't move even a bit.

He looked ahead and got startled. He wanted to curse, but nothing came out of his open mouth. There, lots of creatures he had never seen before were flying low in front of him. They were burnt by blazing fire- some was red fire and the other was blue fire- and black skinned. They had a pair of huge angelic wings which matched the colour of their fire, no really, their wings were made from fire too. Their hair was chili red, braided as long as their ankle. They had a good athletic posture though, yet it wasn't clear whether they were men or women. Hell Angel, that was how Valen named these demonic face yet angelic winged creatures. Valen created them from a black magic, that explained the filthy mind and behaviour of them.

"'Two is not less, two is not more, two is what the Heaven needs. If you leave one, the one shall be burnt in hell.'.. Eheheheh.. What a joke!" Narcius scratched his head in defeat, he could just laughed at his stupidity. He was the Trap Master, but after being trapped easily like this, he didn't deserve that title anymore. Valen suited the title better, now he realized, that Aeon was the best Trap Master ever.

The foremost Hell Angel raised his hand straightly pointing at Narcius and spoke in hoarse and rasping voice. The voice was manly, but somehow it was womanly too- that creature had no gender for sure.

"Thou.. shall be burnt in hell.."

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TO BE CONTINUED

Alright, this is getting complicated! Even I, feel dizzy due to my own fanfiction too.. =,= Sheez, I never imagined I would need more chapters to accomplish this story, eventhough I really wanted it to be long, but I only predicted 10 chapters *10 chapters are long enough for a beginner like me! O But hey, I hope you will enjoy and never get bored of this.. =)

And.. I apologize for being late to submit this chapter. The internet connection sucks here. =(

If you wish, please review and tell me everything in your mind about this story. I really really really appreciate your review since I need it too for improvement. Happy reading.. ^^


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10! Happy reading.. ^o^

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If the ground where you're standing on is flipped 180 degrees, you will expect to fall through and arrived at the underground. Less likely, Rue found himself fall to underground, but surprisingly it had sky. Yes, sky. The other astonishing fact was that he fell into a place similar to the upper ground- the trees, the soil, the pathway- except that everything was turned upside down. He couldn't explain it really well, but in simple words, he fell from the ground to the trees and fell again to the ground. Just imagine.

His achey body didn't stop him from immediately calling for Mint, trying to find her presence there, until a soft voice called his name in return. She was standing as complete as before, without lacking of anything. Rue could hear her steps running towards him.

"What are you doing here? Did you.. follow me to the trap?" Mint herself was surprised. Nevertheless, she got nothing but the silence from Rue, though she knew it was his normal 'yes'. Shooking head, her heart sank to know that he didn't even care about the trap when it was about her safety.

"Where are we now?" Rue spread sight everywhere.

The only thing that differed the underground from the upper ground was the poem entitled 'Heaven and Hell', they didn't find it carved where it supposed to be. The wind blew through the trees which lined both sides of the pathway, it made Mint shiver for feeling the coldness. Rue decided to enter the pathway first, but he stopped as soon as he found a rectangle made from marble in the middle of the pathway. He sighed and looked forward, there was a small pillar standing steadily with purple stone floating above, at the end of the pathway- five sparkly blue ellipses surrounded the stone . So, they needed to pass through the rectangle to reach the stone?

"Wait, Rue.. Are you gonna threspass this? Might be a trap.. " Mint complained right when he was about to stomp on it. Rue turned to see her face for a while since he was hesitant too, nevertheless he had to make up the decision, "... Uhm, we have no choice."

He placed his right foot on it very cautiously and waited. Nothing happened. Feeling safer, he walked toward and Mint followed him through the rectangle. Suddenly, a black and a white light came out of the surface toward the sky, spiralling to one another with a loud buzz. Rue and Mint leapt entering the area after the rectangle together, they were puzzled by the lights which appeared without definite causes.

Those lights returned to the rectangle and left nothing, but gaping mouths from Mint and Rue for moments. Regained her mind again, Mint stomped her foot and yelled, "Grrh! What the hell was that! A welcome sign? Huh, my heart nearly lost the beat!"

"Promise you, your heart soon will stop for good, Darling.."

A deep haughty woman's voice came from behind. The two fellows turned and found three women standing near the pillar. They were not ordinary women though, everybody could identify them as angels from their white dove-like wings at the back and halos on the head. The figures were heavenly sculpted- tall, slim, and voluptous. Two angels, left and right, had ankle-length hair with different styles. The left angel braided her hair with sharp left-sided bangs covered her left part of face, whilst the right one had sleeky straight hair, bangs covering the eyebrows, and white flowers on her head. The foremost angel, who looked the most ordinary compared to the others, was the one who talked to Mint in sarcasm.

Every man in the world would fall for these angels at the first sight, but a doll like Rue wasn't attracted offhand by perfect physical appearance only. Moreover, he sensed something malicious from these angels, their eyes were full of hatred.

The middle angel swung her wavy curled hair, "Oy, humans! Are you idiot or what? Don't you read the warning before, eh? You know, that's the kind of us to warn you!" Her voice was nice, but it wasn't nice anymore after hearing the words.

Couldn't accept such statements, Mint thrusted one Dual Halo, "Get out of my way, Birdy Women! What the hell is your warning, uh, whatever it was, I don't give a damn about it!"

The three of them bursted in sinister laughter. "My, you are so confident, [expletive]! This is the Heaven- now you get it, dumbhead?- and we are Heaven Demons! Let me introduce ourselves to you, I am Ubitcha, on my right is Ubitche, and on my left is Ubitchi.. " The foremost angel, Ubitcha, used oh-so-forbidden-word as an angel and it made Mint frown in disgust- even a real curser like Mint didn't expect that coming from literally angel-like persons. Well, at least, they were Heaven Demons, their name was a privilege to curse.

Not involved in the conversation, Rue preferred to focus on a theory about the angels' sudden coming. He was more than sure that no one was there before and that was before Mint stepped on the rectangle. A line from the poem came to his mind.

Two is not less, two is not more, two is what the Heaven needs.

So the rectangle didn't react to one pair of feet, but two pairs! It was just a wild guess on how it censored two persons, nevertheless there was no doubt about it. This Heaven needed two person to summon the angels down into the earth- not a real 'heaven' nor 'angels though, it was just how Valen named them, he guessed so.

"Uhm, Mint?" Rue called Mint who was throwing curses with the angels and proceeded to explain everything, he didn't care whether she wanted to listen or not. Though, she did listen to him.

She shooked her head, "What about Narcius? According to the [expletive] poem, 'one shall be burnt in hell', does it mean.. " Mint answered that incomplete question in her mind. Blood drained rapidly to her head, raising the tension insides. No, she wasn't angry, indeed she was extremely angry. Mint always hated everything about poem, everything! She always skipped from poem literature lesson in East Heaven Kingdom, the only subject she refused to learn after her return to the palace. And now, the poem stuffs brought them to complicated circumstances, how could she stay calm?

"Oy! What are you doing! Ignoring the three of us? How dare.." Ubitche who had been silent all the time finally spoke out loud. For a woman's voice, it was rather heavy and hoarse- somehow, Mint could catch a hint of man's voice in it. Ubitche frowned at Rue, feeling suspicious of him. "You are Doll of Valen, aren't you? You are supposed to stay at your post and do your duty! What are you doing, hobnobbing with human?"

Rue was startled by her question, "I'm not- uhm, well -how do you know I'm a Doll of Valen?" Rue didn't answer Ubitche, he asked her instead. Ubitche folded her arms, "How could you ask such things? We are Guardians, of course we recognize the Dolls of Valen! And you don't know who we are, huh? You must be the traitor Ruegia! You wish you could get this Star Stone!" Ubitche's face tensed a bit, and so did Ubitcha and Ubitchi. Rue didn't say anything, he glanced the stone, 'What is that Star Stone for?'

The only person who wasn't interested in this topic, Mint, yawned loudly as if she was a hippocampus. Arrogant as always, the saucy princess butted into the conversation and averred everything in her mind.

"Alright, Rue vs the Birdies! You, inappropriate angels, this is Rue who hampered Valen from returning to my world! My world, you hear! And my name is Mint, you better remember since I will conquer this world and you will be under my footings! Now, step out from my way and give me that stone, I will spare your life for sure, got it?" She didn't even know what would the stone for, however from the way those Heaven Demons protected it, it had to be 'something'. Especially, 'something' with the [relic] she had been longing for.

Instead of being scared by Mint's speech about her world domination plan, Heaven Demons felt really insulted. That was the first time they met Rue, though the news of their mighty lord, Valen, got conquered had spread very well. And how Mint uttered about the authority stuffs really pissed them off, even the kindest face, Ubitchi, now turned darker. Nobody could take the right to rule them- only Valen, no one else.

Ubitcha clenched her fists furiously, "So, you are that [expletive] doll? Ungrateful doll, broken doll! Was that how you returned our Lord's kindness from creating you? You both just keep wishing, I will never give this stone!" Ubitcha grabbed the stone and, stunningly disgusting, swallowed it in one quick deglutition. Mint exclaimed as Ubitcha's mouth distended as if it was made from elastic rubber and the neck did it either, yet after passing her throat, the bulge disappeared offhand.

"And you, [expletive]! You are the shameless [expletive]! Your magic is no compare to our high-level magic! Ubitche, Ubitchi, set the fire! We'll punish these bastards 'till their last droplet of blood!" the pretty Ubitcha herself turned into a demon form. The eyes changed into hollow black, supple skin became crusted and muscular, her sexy lips faded while two huge canines replaced her well-arranged white teeth, and a pair of devil horns grew from her scalp. Ubitche and Ubitchi looked worse with black flame burning their hair, each swung the hair and so the trees were burnt in one swing, didn't give a chance to escape.

A mocking smirk appeared on Mint's face, "Huh.. Even the beautiful angels have demon side. But, duh, this is too superficial.. " she nodded to Rue, "We have to destroy them to get that stone. I don't know what it is, but I know that the stone is really precious. My, they are too protective.." The white hair guy gazed her a while and nodded back.

Rue faced of Ubitche with her burning braid- she used it like a whip. The first trial in Stone monster form didn't result as good as expected since this black fire didn't burn literally. It burnt in a different way, black flame accelerated cells death and left dry cold black marks- unlike red fire caused wet reddish wound. Stone needed heat to get bigger, unfortunately black fire was not 'hot'. Besides the unique fire she possessed, Ubitche was tough. She was fast for her bigger form and she could whip really hard. The thickness of the braid helped her damaging ability a lot. Nevertheless, Rue was yet stronger than her.

In the other party, Mint was facing sweety Ubitchi who kept smiling even in a horrible demon form. For God's sake, Mint loathed those strands of hair! She didn't know how to describe its attacking mode, maybe rather like a razor blade, but dangerously there were millions of razor-like hair strands.

The similarities between those demons were the black magic. They used extraordinary black spells Mint had never heard of. Valen should've discovered them through his dark experiments about the [relics]. The nastiest spell was casted by Ubitcha who seemed to be the leader of the badass trio. She stayed away from the battle, yet still involved herself by casting Ground Vitamin spell- it made some squares of stony ground unexpectedly grew quickly and punched out the enemies. Sometimes, if Rue or Mint stayed too long on the same area, she would cast the Black Blades spell which sent hundreds of black sharp rings. That spell disturbed Mint so much since she didn't have wings unlike the demons or Rue who was in Alato form. Many times she had to use Restore Health to repair the slices caused by Black Blades, despite its consuming energy.

However, people's saying about 'fortune always comes after the misfortune' matched with the battle. The demons might be superb, but such high techniques consumed plenty of energy, that they needed to recharge once in awhile, and they couldn't fight or defend during the process. The chance was precious even if it happened for mere 10 seconds.

After much blood and sweat, Mint sent badly injured Ubitchi down to the ground several seconds after the same thing happened to Ubitche. Both could barely stand on their footings, they dragged themselves to Ubitcha. Instead of caring her Guardian fellows, Ubitcha would rather to grumble and kick them.

Contrast to those Heaven Demons, Rue was helping the exhaustedly laying Mint. He didn't doubt her ability to defeat Ubitchi, this was more about his concerned feeling towards her. His heart still thumped so hard from the battle until he could feel the beat down in his stomach.

"Are you alright?" he stopped as his fingers touched flowing blood at Mint's palm, "You bleed.. much." He was not phobic to blood, just psychological trauma from the past involving Claire. Mint quickly realized what was happening, then she bragged, "It's nothing! Come on, that doesn't even hurt me. Ouch!" she mumbled in pain- Rue, who had been once relieved by her confident words, gazed in worry again. Mint sighed in defeat, "Alright, that hurts. Stop your silly expression, Doll, I'll fix it right away okay? Ego restituo !" Actually, she didn't plan on using Restore Health anymore after the fight, but this doll's expression bugged her peaceful aftermatch moment. If only she had known that wasn't an 'aftermatch', but a reses before another one..

She was distracted by Ubitcha's mad voice. There, Ubitcha growled in frustration, sometimes gave kicks or punches to the other demons. Mint couldn't bear the questions in her head anymore.

"Why didn't she fight us? Ubitcha is strong, if three of them joined the forces, they would eliminate us easily.. Don't you think so?"

"..." Rue nodded, he was hypnotized by the scene before his eyes. The demons had returned to their normal forms as angels. Ubitcha pulled her sisters high above ground at the neck with each of her hands and murmured in anger.

"[Expletive]! Weaklings! You know that I can't move easily with the stone in me, I just need you to do me one [expletive] favor to kill those dirty humans! Can't you DO anything right!" Ubitcha didn't care at how Ubitchi and Ubitche desperately choked and gasped for air. Suddenly, she let them fall and hit the ground, both coughed badly. Ubitcha walked slowly ahead, her back curved forward like a pregger.

"I'm not finished with you! This time, I'll crush you with my own hands!" Ubitcha clenched the right fist which then released black flame toward the sun. She muttered the spell out loud, "The Holy Sun! Lend me your power, combine us in the heaven light! Neutralize the poison in my blood, keep the darkness of hell in my soul! Then the sins of mine shall be concealed!" Rue blinked in surprise, that was the first time he could see sunlight in Fire Forest. And the weird thing was, he found it in a place which was actually the underground!

'This is not good..' Mint had a bad feeling about this scene. She watched as sun neutralized the black flame into white brimming flash which then covered Heaven Demons from her sight. 'They are definitely transforming into a new form, but oh! Don't- please, don't- don't tell me they are going to..' Mint bit her lower lips in frustration. She was worried sick that the thought would come true.

Under the warm shower of sunshine, Heaven Demons took the first step after a brief process. Mint had prepared to accept the worst possibility, so here comes the bad dream. Or, maybe the worst dream since Heaven Demons finally combined themselves into their final form, Ultima Demon. At the end, she couldn't accept the fact very well.

"Alright! Now you join into one [expletive] body, and it drives me crazy! Grrrrhh!" Rue was startled because he just saw Mint sitting on the ground, yet in mere a second, she had stood up and stomped.

Ultima Demon form had appearance like a tall angel who was wearing a pure-white hooded robe covering its skin, except its white pale hands. It didn't have anything that supposed to be there on the face part, its face was a blank black and rather similar to a hole. Thirty dragonfly wings bent outward the demon's back, all was black contrast to the clothes. Mint would rather call it a spectre than an angel, eventhough none was correct- Ultima Demon was definitely a demon.

"I won't relinquish you, weak humans. This is a blunder of you from the first time you chose to walk here. You yourselves call your anguish and I'm really honored to give it, " Ultima Demon did speak although it didn't possess any mouth. As usual, Mint reacted arrogantly to its underestimating words- everything about underestimation issues kind of reminisced her to Bella and Belle.

"Do we have to show you anew our great powers, huh? Don't look down on us, screwball! I will give my best punches to you right away, and I will get that stone, and I will be one step closer to the [relic]~! Lalalala~ " For some seconds, she forgot about everything.

It chuckled mischievously, "I see.. So this is about the [relic].. Fine, your reason strengthened my will to eliminate you from this world."

Unexpectedly, it released Ground Vitamin which punched Rue and Mint to the sky. Though Ubitcha had casted this spell for countless times, they would never get used to the nasty punching-like ground. Preventing any damage of bumping the ground from such height, Rue transformed into an Alato and caught Mint before it was too late.

Ultima, who had waited patiently for his prey's landing, lambasted the ground as soon as Mint stepped on it and made severe crack creeping from its feet to her. She evaded by throwing herself somewhere else. Black flame blazed from the cracking patch as soon as it stopped moving. Well, Ultima could wear white clothes and use the power of sun, but still it possessed black magic.

This Guardian was nuts! Roundly it didn't give any chance for them to attack. She gazed Ultima Demon, who stood far away from her, in irritated look. 'I will take care of this freaky guardian and..' she blinked once, 'Oh-'

Mint gaped when she found Ultima had stood besides. That was impossible! She saw Ultima Demon was THERE, after a blink- voila!- Ultima somehow was HERE. What creature in the world could move that fast? She was frozen in her position, couldn't move anywhere else.

"Mint! Get away from there!" Rue warned Mint, but the girl was still paralyzed by her surprise. She didn't listen to him.

"Face me, Mint. You are forbidden to blink in the middle of my battle!" Ultima spoke coldly. That Guardian grabbed her by the collar and pulled her up above the ground. This damn tight grip at her collar rather choked Mint. Her feet kicked in the air desperately.

"Let me go, [expletive]! Oh, Rue! Help!" She tried to punch and claw Ultima's pale hand, but it felt nothing like she expected. Ultima laughed horribly- Mint imagined the whole empty face did the laughter, well, in this case it was true. Ultima now began swinging her from one side to another, it was frolicking with Mint before destructing her into bloody pulps.

"Release her, demon!"

And, one perfect swing from the holy Arc Edge at Ultima's arm stopped it at once from swinging Mint. Finally, Ultima let go of Mint, it groaned while grabbing the injured arm and temporarily took distance from them. Meanwhile, Mint landed on the ground spunkily on one of her knees, then she quickly joined Rue who was ready to attack the badass Guardian.

She clenched her fist, "Now, you'll get nicey whack from me, idiot demon, or angel, or monster, or- NAH! Whatever!" Instead of replying her threat, Ultima bursted in laughter. It swept the sleeve upward on a arm where Rue slashed it moments ago and revealed shining hole in the middle of its arm. Heaven Demons had borrowed the power of sunlight, so Ultima's body was basically built from indestructible light. The skin was merely a cover, injuring the skin didn't mean anything.

"Puhleaase! Don't judge me by the vulnerable skin of mine.. My body consisted from a substance of the strongest star in this galaxy, thou too underestimated me.." Ultima's wings fluttered faster, "I'm not forgiving that indescent attack, by the way.. Lucea de Ultima !" Flashily shine erupted from every inch of Ultima's body and covered the whole arena. Rue could hear Mint call for him in horror, but all he could do was covering his eyes. This light beam attack happened for several seconds and those seconds really tortured since Rue could feel his skin heaten madly as if he was burnt.

As soon as the spell effect was diminished, Ultima dashed with half of light velocity and emptyhandedly whacked its enemies who were completely unaware. Rue's awareness was better than Mint as he could still identify the whizzing sound, then quickly opened his eyes and dodged on time. On the other hand, Mint was tossed far away until at the end, she bumped roughly to the ground.

Without wasting any more time, this Doll of Valen whacked Ultima and so they both enganged in a tough physical fight. Ultima changed its hands into two huge light swords which were still covered by skin. Mint got up and watched the fight- and something was wrong with her eyes. She didn't have it before Ultima's spell, but now light was filling her sight and made her hard to see clearly! She rubbed those eyes several times, yet the intervention worsen it. Everything was bright, too bright maybe.

"Mint!" Rue yelled right after he slouched from one dangerous slash, "Do something- argh!" He leapt backward, if he were late a mere second, Ultima would have torn his face apart. Yet, Ultima still succeded in ripping his skin a little.

Mint stuttered herself, "Oh, [expletive]! How the heck I could cast spell promptly if I can't see anything?" Tear was flowing down her cheeks, her eyes were piercing hot. It was the light derived from the sun, no doubt it would burn, though slightly, just like every sunlight does.

Rue fell to the ground and defended by using the gripping curve of Arc Edge while Ultima eagerly pushed him.

"Weak humans.. Die.. Just die!" Ultima mumbled viciously, hands kept pushing against Rue. Rue glanced from the corner of his eye, only to find Mint do nothing about this. He couldn't hold it any longer. Mint had to help him or Ultima would cut off his head.

"Mint! Help me! Now!" he yelled once again to the fiery orange haired girl. Mint nervously bit her lower lips. She couldn't tell Rue offhand that she had lost her clear visibility. Yes, she was able to see two wrestling creatures in front of her sometimes . But, the view quickly blurred before appearing again in the next few seconds. Nevertheless, getting frustrated by his scream for help, Mint decided to help Rue, even if that meant she'd possibly attack him instead.

Dual Haloes revolved around each other and whirred. Ultima turned its attention to Mint, somehow Rue believed the guardian did it behind the black hollow face, Ultima was smirking.

"Enjoy, Rue.." the guardian suddenly flew away from Rue. The doll boy was confused of the sudden change- that was when Mint shot Blowup Rocks spell towards Rue, without realizing who would be hit by the spell.

"Mint! What's she doing?" Rue gazed Mint with widened eyes. Whatever it was in that girl's mind, Rue only knew something was wrong and he had to escape from the raging rocks that was gliding towards him. Ultima took the chance to cast Ground Vitamin to the off-guard Mint, since Rue was busy himself. Poor Mint, she was thrown high up to the sky as if she had jumped on a giant trampoline. Flying might be nice, the problem was always how she'd land from such height without wings or other appliances.

Meanwhile Rue had done with plenty Blowup Rocks when he heard the ground had elevated irregularly at where Mint just stood before. His heart stopped one second to realize her misfortune.

"NO! MINT!" His words were cliche for that type of situation, though nothing better to say. He changed himself into a Grendoa and extended his tongue to catch Mint. Unfortunately, he forgot about Ultima. That Guardian quickly caught his tongue, with cowboy style, it spinned Rue like a lasso before letting go of the tongue and launching Rue to the sky. It wasn't helping him to catch Mint, the plan was to make them bump badly in high velocity. Ultima was utterly playing with its 'new toys'.

"RUE! WAATTCCHH OOUUUUTTT!" Mint screamed as Rue got closer to her. They were about to crash! On the other hand, Rue didn't seem to worry about it. He stucked out his slimey Grendoa tongue, wrapped it around Mint who was closing her eyes, and took her with him. He didn't expect that Ultima launched some Gimmick Balls- another black magic with black fireballs- to the point they were about to hit, though fortune was still on his side since Rue had flew away.

"Oh, yuck! Why the hell did you have to use this monster?" Mint grumbled as they landed safely. Rue who had transformed back to human form, frowned, "Mint, why do you shoot magic to me? Is something wrong with you? Well-" He froze when Mint turned her face, "your eyes are white.."

Though she didn't catch it that way, "Of course! What colours do you expect? Pink? Hah!"

The doll boy shooked his head, but Black Blades disturbed the conversation. Quickly Rue pulled Mint away, on the contrary Mint didn't realize what was going on.

"Your eyes are WHOLE white, Mint!" Rue yelled since he had to overcome the noisy sound now resulting from Ground Vitamin- Ultima never stopped attacking them. He brought Mint running from those continuous attacks- Ground Vitamin, then Black Blades, then Gimmick Balls, then back to Ground Vitamin again, and so on.

Mint shrieked hysterically, "Is that so? [Expletive]! That's why I can't see clearly! Everything is too bright!"

Some Black Blades were so low from the ground that they had to jump over. "Mint, JUMP!" Rue gave the instruction. Mint was a bit puzzled because she didn't see anything, she heard many sounds though. Three first blades were okay, but the next six were troubles- Mint almost tripped over them and got cuts at her legs.

"Oh, [expletive]! These things really piss me off!" curses came from her mouth in the middle of panting breath. Rue turned to hide behind a tree. He asked something to the princess, yet he sounded as if he had been talking to himself.

"What should I do to defeat a creature consisted of sunlight? How in the world can I destroy the light? For heaven's sake.."

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TO BE CONTINUED..

Alright, I didn't update for three weeks coz I lost my mood! Duh... Never mind, I always want to accomplish this fanfiction. ^^ I'll stay faithful until I completely lose my inspiration.. XD

I was confused but using Old English, maybe not old, but the English which Shakespears used in his scripts. I tried to make Heaven Demons use that antique accent, but my God, that's complicated! =,=

Alright, my buddy readers, please review my story.. Tell me everything, whether it's satisfaction, or dissatisfaction, or disgust, or compliment, or complain, or what else? Oh, everything! XD See you in next chapter, I hope it won't be long.. =)


	11. Chapter 11

This is Chapter 11! Happy reading! ^w^

Threads of Fate from Squaresoft- now Square Enix.

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"How long will you keep hiding from me? Cowards!"

More spells. More cracking grounds, blades, black fireballs, and so on. Did this Guardian really think its targets would show up only to get some punching squares of ground? Ultima, you're way too naive.

Not far from that insane-yet-angelic looking demon, two teenagers tried to breathe as quietly as they could. Mint, the pretty princess from East Heaven Kingdom who longed for the world domination, was shivering in horror for thinking that she would never see normally anymore. Of course the most important thing was nobody wanted a blind leader with horrible white eyes.

"I hate it.. I hate it.. I hate it.. Doesn't this thing have better spell than ruining my pretty burgundy eyes into a pair of [EXPLETIVE] white eyes! How the heck will I clearly see my world with these too-bright-vision? "Mint grumbled the same sentences every thirty seconds. Somehow, Rue got used to her frequent annoying complaints. Maybe, that was because she said them too much; moreover, it was better to think a way to get rid of Ultima and finally gain that Star Stone than to listen to her rambles.

Anyway, Valen wouldn't gave Ultima a role as a guardian if it was a blockhead. So, there wasn't any problem for this creature to find hiding targets- well, nobody would hide if they had no place to hide. Then, in order to make Mint and Rue come out of the huge trees, it casted many spells of black blades which cut down those poor trees surrounding the pathway. It was massive illegal logging though, but an evil guardian wouldn't give a damn about environment as long as it could win the battle. Just like Ultima's prediction, the tactic worked perfectly as Rue finally appeared with trembling Mint clinging to his left arm. The crack-and-boom noises freaked her out since she utterly couldn't see anything.

"You [expletive]! What was that sudden attack! Do you want to make me die from getting trampled by the trees?" Mint shouted with maximum volume. Of course Ultima wanted her to die miserably; nevertheless, it chose to ignore her and turned its right hand into a sword again. Rue let go of Mint, he gripped the Arc Edge tightly, but it was rather difficult since sweat soaked his hand badly.

"Go somewhere else, Mint. He's about to attack us again," Rue told the girl to run away, but all she could say was, "You lame doll! I can hardly see where I am standing now and you tell me to run?"

No time to reply Mint's whine because Ultima had ran towards Rue using its super speed- half of light velocity since Ultima borrowed the power of sunlight. That Doll of Valen slouched and dashed, when the guardian was close enough jumped to gain stability and slashed the creature. He only thought he couldn't give up attacking Ultima, though he was still out of the idea about how to defeat it exactly.

Ultima was really one hard enemy, rather similar to Chimera in ability, durability, and speed. 'This thing must have at least one hidden weakness! Uh.. Think, Rue!' Rue shouted anxiously in his mind, his right hand was busy hacking at Ultima's body. The Guardian's pale skin cracked in many places and revealed irregular holes of flashing light. The light disturbed Rue's sight so much, several times he merely hit empty air or the grounds. In the middle of that 'flashy' battle, he gazed upward and was rather surprised to find two burgundy eyes appeared faintly on Ultima's face.

Rue lost the concentration, Ultima took the chance to slash the crap out of him. Clearly it wasn't that easy to take him down, Rue was still able to resist Ultima's hit by his own weapon.

Rue got up, but now he felt more curious about those new burgundy eyes than the battle itself. Rubbing eyes once. Rubbing eyes twice. Those were definitely Mint's eyes. Funny, but Rue found that the eyes image was getting sharper, unlike vague figures of eyes he saw several seconds ago. That Doll of Valen gaped open in disbelief. He never found such creepy event in this life.

Ultima seemed to understand the circumstances happening that time. It giggled disgustingly.

"Don't you think I need at least a pair of eyes?" Ultima finally spoke in a rather too sweet tone. Rue got no reason to reply this Guardian's retorical question. He was looking at Ultima sternly in the eyes- its NEW eyes.

"I always wanted to have burgundy eyes. Oh, such rare colour.. Do you agree with me?" Ultima acted rather confusing. It showed manly behaviour before, now it sounded and acted womanly all of a sudden. Rue couldn't resist the conversation and the fake manners anymore. He madly swung the Arc Edge in reply.

"Stop talking as if they were yours, you evil thief! Return those eyes to her!" whatever came out of his mouth, that was utterly reflex. Ultima would never return those eyes, he could guess just by seeing how much it loved Mint's eye colour. However his words might be hillarious to Ultima since it suddenly bursted in laughter.

"Shut up! What's so funny!"

Ultima instantly shut its mouth. For some quiet seconds, the two gazed one another, burgundy met brown.

"I love collecting eyes.. You know, that girl has bright eyes I've always wanted. I hate the fact that I was created without anything on my face. Valen gave me ability to absorb only one part of face and make it mine. As you see, I chose eyes."

"So, this is your true form, huh?"

"Not really.. I can transform into three beautiful angels and have those beautiful pairs of eyes, but I get weaker when I do that. Funny that I'm still looking for new eyes when I'm just meant to be blank like this," Ultima pointed at its own face.

Rue gritted his teeth, "Then why did you do this to Mint, you dirty monster!"

" Told ya I like this colour, " Ultima wickedly winked at Rue, "But, hey! I just want to remind you to check her. You know, I took her eyes, something bad might happen, eh?"

Ultima gave an answer which definitely frightened Rue. So the moment when Mint had white eyes, it was due to the transferring process had begun. And now, when all of her eyes had been taken over by Ultima, how was she doing then? He called for the princess immediately, but no one answered back. Strangely, Ultima let him rush away to find her. Maybe it knew something, well, of course that guardian knew something had happened to Mint- it must have seen the same thing many times before.

Sweat he got from the battle trickled down his jaw as he ran towards the logs where he told Mint to hide. He smiled a bit when he saw that girl's red crown behind a biggie log. He couldn't wait to see his best partner's condition.

"Mint! Are you o-.."

Smiling face of Rue turned into a pale, shocked one . His knees were trembling so bad that he couldn't stand anymore. The Arc Edge fall pronto besides since he had no energy left to carry that thing.

"Mint.. No.. What happened to you? Come on, Mint! Talk to me!" He desperately grabbed her hand. Although Rue exactly knew she wouldn't answer anything, he just needed to wake her up- he just needed to call Mint's name who was half-sitting against the log with the eyes shut. He shook her weak body up and..

He got a nice slap. Well, Mint is the mighty princess.

Still closing her eyes, Mint mumbled lazily, "What the HECK are you doing, Rue, you moron! I'm hiding and now you reveal me!" Then she pulled off his hands forcefully from her arms, "And put-your-hands-off-ME! I'm not interested to be touched by a doll."

Rue blinked in disbelief. She was okay as hell- the fact rather embarrassed him. Come on, he almost sobbed two minutes ago! If that really happened, how would he ever explain it?

He let go of Mint and cleared throat, "S-sorry.. I was, uh.. Never mind. It's nice to see you alright. Uhmm.. What's with closing eyes?" Though she didn't see anything, he felt so insecure and awkward.

"Suddenly, I lost the bright sensation, and everything totally turned black. I thought it was black out, but I realize I'm still conscious. Better than struggling to keep them open yet seeing nothing, I closed my eyes and as you see, fell asleep. That's when you come, Sonny. You ruined my nap. I don't understand, do you want to tell the whole world where I hide? Good, now that jackass finds out too." She kept mumbling without realizing how her words, which was intended to blame Rue, gave a great relief to him instead. The most important problem for Rue was solved, now he had to move on- fetching Star Stone and Mint's burgundy eyes.

"Don't worry. I'll beat him and return your eyes. J-just stay alert, okay?" He got up immediately to face Ultima. Mint was fine, nothing to worry about. She protruded her tongue, "Whatever."

Ultima, with lots of shining holes beneath its robe, was giggling for something not funny from Rue's point of view. Finally he was set, Ultima would never receive forgiveness.

Rue spinned the Arc Edge and slammed it to the ground, "You, how dare you getting on my nerves.."

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"HIYAAAAHH!" Narcius looked like as if he was leaping freely in the air. Not exactly that free. The Hell Angels blew him away with White Explosives, and he was thrown off the ground. White Explosives made small glittery explosion- sweet, but despite of its small size and beautiful glitters, its effect could disturbingly throw you some meters away just like Narcius.

He covered his head while rolling, the yellow coat got dirtier by the soil. At the time he stopped, he directly uttered curses.

"'Ey, Man! Stop [expletive] using that silly explosion!" he writhed and found the most terrible thing in the world, "What the.. [EXPLETIVE]! My coat's RIPPED! Every person on the earth who dares to hurt my coat will [expletive] die miserably!" Yes, that was the terrible thing, sorry for him. He breathed rapidly as if he just saw his bestiest dying.

"Better care about your useless life, human.." the frontman spoke, one of those Hell Angels who had a plain expression- a mixture of nothing.

"Tch.. Yea, I'm human! I'm a cool and handsome man! And what are you, firey creature? I thought I never read about your species in Bible! One more thing, this human will beat you down for sure, and that's the last thing you will remember in your pathetic life! As if you had a brain to remember me.. " Narcius sinisterly chuckled. No matter how harsh he talked, the frontman only exhaled to hear the speech. Another hell angel who stood behind him shouted furiously.

"Shut up, you dirty flea! I'll stuff White Explosives to your mouth and watch you shatter like fruitcake!" that Hell Angel sounded like cricket, so not flattering nor frightening. It had a figure of womanly lips and batting white eyelashes- contrast to its black-marble skin. Black marble, literally.

"You shut the [expletive] off, fugly.." Narcius fluttered his hand towards the woman, who quickly yelled in madness but then the frontman stopped her from attacking Narcius.

She shrieked hysterically behind the leader's arm, "You're gonna get burnt in our hell! You deserve that!" She thought she could frighten such ignorant Narcius. Instead, he giggled happily.

"Ow ow ow.. I'm [expletive] scared, baby girl.. No, not by your threat, but by your ugly voice. Don't be shy, that's a compliment. Hahaha!" Narcius couldn't hold his laugh. She almost scratched her face in madness, though she soon gained her insanity back and cancelled every masochistic stuff in her mind. She might be suffering from a mental disorder or something.

"Silence, you two, " the frontman finally spoke up. He had that kind of charisma which could lead everyone, friends or foes, to respect him. Somehow, he seemed lacking of spirit to live his life.

Then he gazed Narcius, "You human, what are you doing here? Don't you read the poem out there? That's a warning for you to bring your weak feet outta here."

Narcius frowned, "And what is your problem with me being here? Isn't it nice to finally fight someone and get defeated by a stranger?" Suddenly Narcius realized something. He didn't even know why he provoked those monsters to get into a fight! 'Geez, goddammit.. You fool, Narcius! You idiot! I don't even know how to handle them..' the spiky red haired man scratched his back of head awkwardly.

Smirking, the first expression after 10 minutes, the mysterious frontman replied, "Hmm.. So confident. Do you really think that way? That's interesting!" The way he talked really showed to what kind of situation this was going. He wanted a fight so bad. And, he wanted to know if he could be defeated by mere human. The blue fire blazing around his marble skin got brighter as he stated in confidence, "Okay, defeat me, prove that I'm wrong. I've been in hundreds of battles in my life, but nobody as incompetent as you said that they could beat me down. If you lose, you need to know that we love eating humans, just telling you. " Somehow, his cold personality wasn't that cold anymore. His real spirit was hooked out of the deepest mind by words about fighting.

Actually, this creepy situation was something Narcius expected to not ever happen. But yeah, he provoked such battle with Guardian who had thirst for battle as well as hunger after human flesh, what else could be done after all his stupid words. Better than kneeling with tears trickling on his face and begging for forgiveness, those are not his style, he accepted the challenge like a real man.

"And, what am I gonna get if you lose?"

The Hell Angels' leader laughed out loud. Nothing was funny. Something was riddiculous in his own way, not in everyone's way, not even in his Hell Angel fellows' way, and not in Narcius' way. He smirked even more devilishly, "We both know what you want in Fire Forest. You want our Solid to get the [relic], don't you? I'll give it right away to you once you win over me!"

"No! Helius! What are you doing!" The other Hell Angels began to shout objection.

"SILENCE!"

Even Narcius couldn't hold the shiver sent down his spine for hearing Helius' roar. He was interested in that 'Solid' thing though, maybe that was what they were looking for in this forest. Meanwhile, the other Hell Angels almost shrinked due to their fear- they couldn't oppose Helius any further since he was the strongest Hell Angel among them.

"Do you really think this puny human can even scratch my skin, huh? Answer me!"

Nobody answered.

"So let me prove how dumb this little fellow who wastes such a short life to die offhand in my hand! He he he he.. GA HA HA HA HA HA!" He always felt something funny in his own way.

Narcius gritted teeth, "Tch.. What's the matter with you? I'm not gonna die OFFHAND, better change your [expletive] mindset right now! Because it will be harder for you to accept the fact later, I think. So keep your [expletive] promise about the Solid!"

Helius took some steps towards Narcius and gave his hand, "Shall we begin the fight, human?"

"No, wait."

Helius' smirking face turned into an angry one, "What are you talking about? No more turning back.."

Narcius didn't have that superb magic like Mint, or physical and magical power like Rue, to easily beat this Guardian down. He had that Trap magic, but he wasn't even called as Magician since he learnt about it, he didn't get it from his blood. Fighting stronger enemies needed good negotiation as much as good attack. He must be prudent in facing Helius.

"If you want a good fight, then it must be fair for both of us. I know that you're stronger than me ('I don't follow this sentence in my mind!'), and you have magnificent spells I guess.. ('magnificent what! I'm the magnificent man here!') It won't be fair if I'm not allowed to use the whole power of me to fight you."

"My, my.. What's with praising me all of a sudden? What do you wanna say exactly? Are you trying to tell me some terms and conditions? Hah!"

Narcius shook his head, "I don't refer to plural things, Idiot.. I just wanna fight in my battlefield."

"In your.. what?"

"My battlefield, you deaf! I know you heard it! Why do you have to ask? Making this situation a little more dramatic? Tch!" Narcius couldn't be patient anymore. He wanted to hear agreement and.. boom! He would immediately take Helius travel into his battlefield where lots of trap were there. Chances to win got bigger then. He couldn't guess how big it would be, just bigger.

Helius smiled sinisterly, "You.. You're so funny. I mean it. Oh well, I don't mind, do what you want. You must remember anyway, even if we fight in the-so-called as your battlefield, I still can win the game easily! HA HA H-.. !" Helius stopped in the middle of the laughter when Narcius without a warning teleported them to his battlefield. That was for shocking effect, the more shocked Helius could be, the more chance he lost concentration.

Maybe Helius was not that bad, after all he was the leader of Hell Angels squad. He still could keep that kind of warrior landing style even in his worst concentration. On the other hand, Narcius scowled and satirized in jealousy, "Heh.. Let's see what kind of style he will be when I beat him up. Black and blue, frog position.. Damn, I can't wait to see.."

Smarting by such sudden move, Helius shouted in rage, "Evil bastard! Are you trying to trap me?" Actually, Helius had answered his own question.

"Bingo!"

Helius' fire bursted in bright blue, "What? Damn, why is it so damn hot here?" That was when the floor where he was standing on erupted unexpectedly and threw Helius accross the room. Remember what happened to Narcius in Hell due to White Explosives? Ironic. Life is so ironic.

Now let's see why Narcius felt so proud of his battlefield. It was one room without any doors or windows, rather like getting trapped in a box. From now on, call it 'box of traps'. The walls and floor were metallic black, both had pattern of electric blue lines thresspassing on each other irregularly. Don't misunderstand these things, whatever in this box could be one of many various traps. Irregular blue lines were triggered by touch then this pattern transformed into one of many weapons, such as spikes, bullets, etc. In the middle of the battlefield, nine yellow panels floated in the air. They worked by following the owner's mind, only Narcius had the control over them. He randomly set hidden explosives there, once enemy stepped on it.. BOOM! Let's fly to the air- don't forget about hitting the floor too.

Every Trapper- that was how people like Narcius were called- had their own battlefield with its own special ability. Everybody could be a Trapper, it wasn't a gift nor blood inheritance. All could learn this speciality, even older Trappers had built academies for those who were willing to lean. As a final test, they must build their own battlefield or box of traps. Something Narcius was proud for good, he gained the highest score of the decade. So you know.

Back to the battle, Helius fortunately had a pair of useful wings. At least, when one of the panel exploded, he spread the wings and flied avoiding walls or floor. Narcius clapped eagerly, he was watching everything from the central panel.

"Very very smart, kiddo! I'm surprised by your intelligence, so sorry your face shows the opposite, " Narcius heckled Helius. That guardian didn't take these words seriously, Helius even gave the biggest grin ever.

"It's been a long time since my last battle with a Trapper. That fight, I ended up crushing him into bloody pulps, literally. By the way, he had the same behaviour like you.. Ill-mannered men always lose, I suppose so." The wings fluttered weakly, then he landed on a panel. Fortunately, Narcius didn't set it to explode. But he had another plan.

One giant spiky ball, bigger than usual ball he used in outdoor fight, fell from the ceiling toward Helius. The Guardian was surprised by its sudden coming, yet he tried to overcome the ball using an awesome spinkick. He was thinking to use the ball to hurt Narcius instead. And, he succeeded! He utterly succeeded in causing the ball bounce all over the walls and trigger more traps at the same time. Narcius observed carefully as his battlefield became chaotic- where different section shot sharp daggers, another part launched a bunch of bullets, and many more. As the owner, he couldn't be affected by his own traps, there he stood safely wherever he wanted, while Helius couldn't escape anywhere in the narrow box.

And here came the bad luck. Helius trod on a wrong panel, then for the second time in mere 10 minutes at this box of traps, he was exploded. While Narcius had a good time laughing and moving from one panel to another, without worrying a single thing.

That was quite annoying for a guardian like Helius. He always fought in Hell, he had never been in a hectic place like this when everything he touched was nothing but trap, trap, and trap. After a long time of evading, Helius finally landed on an empty panel, if not he didn't know what to do anymore. His glossy marble skin was slit and white blood trickled to the panel.

Helius rampaged offhand at Narcius who was standing one panel away, "You shouldn't talk about fair fight! This is nothing like a FAIR one!"

"Did you goof about that? Why don't you show me the real you since I've shown you the real me, huh? Then, this is gonna be a fair one," Narcius winked in a disgusting way and teleported to another panel. He did play a lot, while Helius got PLAYED there.

Helius maintained his position in the air. "How big mouth you are.. Observe!" He pulled a very long blazing sword out of nowhere. Narcius goggled like an owl, "What the HECK is that! That's not fair!"

Hearing the ironic statement, Helius grinned and winked, "This is the real me, dammit human.. Let's fight like blazes, shall we?" He began to swing his extraordinary sword, it left traces of fire behind. This narrow box seemed adding another obstacle to the fierce fight. Somehow, the fiercer it could be, the more Narcius felt the spirit burn him. After the fight with Rue as a villain and he was defeated easily several months ago, he never felt so strong like this before. Moreover, he was now on the good side. This might change Helius' words about him: good men always win, though they are ill-mannered.

Narcius snapped his fingers, "Man, I like your words! Fighting like blazes.. Heh.. Then let's get it [EXPLETIVE] started! HIIYYYYAAA!" Narcius exclaimed as he dashed toward Helius, jumped over that swinging sword, and jumpkicked that Guardian right on his face- maybe Narcius had to thank Mint for this practical yet awesome attack. Helius couldn't dodge, but he kept slashing at Narcius. Though Narcius teleported from one panel to another, stomped foot here and there, but he often failed to dodge the fire trace. No doubt, his lovely coat became the victim here.

"It's been 10 times! If I win, I'm gonna eat you for this! I'M GONNA [EXPLETIVE] EAT YOU!" Narcius raged as another fire trace made a nice smokey hole at the coat. As a reply, Helius swung back the sword over the top of Narcius' head.

"I'm not sure about you eating me. But, I'm sure about me burning your hair.. Gyahahahaha.."

"WHAT? NOO!"

Narcius got panic attack as the smell of burnt hair began to spread around his nose. Not the coat, and of course, not the hair too! He was proud of his natural spiky style, he didn't care how Mint called him Porcupine or how stranger called him just like Mint did. The point is he really loved his hair, end of story!

End of story about Narcius and his hair, anyway.

Helius then used Fire Rain spell which immediately gave heavy rain made from blue fire. Pretty, but dangerous. The spell had some kind of healing properties for Helius since the open wound slowly stopped trickling blood, yet it didn't heal fully. The only thing Narcius could do was hiding, he arranged four panels as a roof above him.

"You! You're not fair with your healing spell!" Narcius yelled while he evaded from another sword attack.

"Who's not fair? Me?" Helius jabbed the sword toward Narcius, but he teleported somewhere else, "you fight with all of your traps, I fight with all of my spells.. aren't we deal about that, HUH!" the Guardian stopped the Fire Rain and once again slashed Narcius, yet unfortunately he missed. He attacked the wall instead.

And.. The sword was stuck! Forcefully Helius tried to pull the sword away before Narcius dropped spiky ball right at him.

"What's.. the.. matter.. with.. THIS! UGGHH!" Nevertheless, the effort yielded fruition. He got his sword back and the biggest secret Narcius didn't even know.

Narcius gaped open to see what happened in front of his eyes. He designated this box to be attack-proof, not a single weapon, nor bomb, nor anything could ever damage this box.

So that day became rather historical for both since Helius' underweight sword finally broke the infamous damage-proof box of traps. Surprised, upset, these feels mixed up in the owner's head. He was surprised because that was the first time. He was upset because he knew the broken parts wouldn't be able to transform for awhile until the automatic regeneration worked two hours later. A slow regeneration system was one weakness he ever ignored since he believed that nothing would be able to break this perfect creation.

"What the hell? So, this wall doesn't seem that strong?" Helius chuckled. He took some flutters toward the broken wall, and did a brief examination. Narcius just stood there without words, he was confused. He wondered what happened.

Helius gazed at him, "You're clueless about this, aren't you? Never expected? Hah!"

"Shut the [expletive] off! Of course, I know!" Narcius rather squeaked. The upset tone in his voice convinced Helius the contrary instead.

He grinned in such a triumph, as if the battle had ended just because he knew about this. "You look funny, Mr. Trapper.. I wanna see how this situation can be funnier when I destroy this junk!"

Helius carelessly spinned his sword as he gazed Narcius. He wanted to show how he could damage this battlefield easily without even caring where he moved the sword to. Narcius growled in madness, he stomped foot and made all panels set to explode. The explosion happened right before Helius flied away; nevertheless, he playfully jabbed the wall in random direction.

Using such an awesome flying ability, Helius spinned in high speed around the room, making bad mess over those four vertical sides of the battlefield. Narcius had no more option left, he teleported following wherever Helius flied, hands touching some intact walls. Those triggered weapons and traps coming out and attacked Helius.

After some exhausting minutes playing tag, Helius finally stopped spinning. Both gazed each other in hatred, they laughed no more.

"It seems that messing with your battlefield gives you strength booster, human. Never thought that you could follow my super speed. I'm impressed.."

Showing fist, Narcius yelled with panting breath, "I know that you are [expletive] rubbish! I've had enough of you!" The punky Trap Master did an unseen stomping motion, then a super heavy spiky ball suddenly fall onto the Guardian's head. It was too late for him to run away or fly away or howsoever he wanted to avoid the trap.

"Holy crap! Aaahhhh!" Helius yelled in horror. This scene looked so magnificent in Narcius' point of view. That your enemy was one second away from getting trampled by a big ball and he screamed like a teenage girl who finds cockroach creeping up her leg, it was extremely hillarious to see.

Unfortunately, Narcius had to taste another disappointment again.

"Surpriissee..!" the Guardian grinned happily as if he just gave a nice surprise to Narcius. He did take Narcius by surprise, a terrible one. Not only he wasn't hurt at all by the spiky ball, he even tear the ball into smaller pieces.

At first, Narcius just goggled like a dummy before frustratedly pinching down his cheeks. He groaned and groaned.

Helius then did an athlete pose to show how he became so edgy all of a sudden. Narcius then realized this had something to do with magic- a spell that turned his muscles into something so hard that it could destroy such a big and heavy ball on the earth, he didn't know what it was.

"Hold on a second.. You, you use magic again? You did it, didn't ya?" Narcius still asked a question of which answer he knew exactly.

"I thought I told you before. Fight me with all of your puny traps and I'll do my best fighting you with my incredible spells!"

Didn't know how he should reply those words, the rude master merely said, "[Expletive] you. I hate you."

"Oh, I'm scared. Come on, stop talking! I'm so eager to beat you up as soon as possible! Bring out all of your traps, so you can see how nothing can ever hurt me under this spell!"

While Narcius kept dwelling on everything, Helius made a quick painful punch toward him. He felt so damn stuck in this case. Fighting magical creature or magician was something he despised, unless they were low class ones. But, now a Guardian? Man, he should have behaved better earlier.

He rolled in the air, and landed roughly on a panel. With the spell, Helius became so much stronger. That Guardian did cause a ball shatter into pieces by hitting him, then punching a mere human to death wouldn't be difficult.

Suddenly, something urged Narcius to cough blood violently. Blood tinged saliva was creeping slowly down the corner of his lips. Of course, that nuts attacked right on his stomach. It hurt, so damn hurt. Even breathing made it worse. Nevertheless, he wouldn't give up the pride for looking weak. Though in falter, he still made it to stand.

"How do you call that awesome spell?"

"Well, since you ask.. That's Clever Diamond! Well, not as strong as diamond, but nearly that strong. Diamonds are forever! " he frowned, "Hey! I've told you to stop chitchatting!"

Narcius spat blood onto the panel- when the battle was over later, he would definitely fix this place.

'Well, Clever Diamond sure does annoying.. Heh. Wait.. Did he say diamond?' This kind of situation somehow reminisced Narcius to something hidden here. 'That weapon' was fabulous. Long time ago he helped Ruecian in winning over a great magician, then Ruecian gave this as a gift for him. He set it as one of traps in the box, but a miscalculation happened so instead of being useful, it became stuck somewhere here. He knew that he could rely on this weapon, as it ever appeared in a battle without any reason- it just popped out.

'I have to find that thing before this [expletive] jerk tears me apart.. Tch! But, where the hell is the dammit weapon!'

He looked around and got an idea out of nowhere. It wasn't a bright one, but whatever, usually he couldn't get anything called as 'idea'. Usually, Kirielle or Karwyn had the idea, he only had curses.

No more time to get another idea, it would be two decades to happen, moreover this screwball had moved impatiently to attack him again. Narcius was forced to teleport fast eventhough he didn't feel like it. This time, he needed Mint so much to recover him, yet the girl's fate was indefinable too after entering a trap.

He touched the wall in every teleportation. So this is the idea, touching every intact part and the most important, praying for 'the weapon' to come out of the wall and smash that bastard.

'This is crazy.. What if I need to touch specific area when on the other hand, it's already broken?' Narcius thought as he teleported and appeared in another corner of the box. One swing from Helius almost jabbed through his head just now before the teleportation.

Getting fed up of that madly long sword and its owner, Narcius teleported behind Helius and gave a good spinkick.

"You know, you and your too-long-sword smart me [expletive] too much! When the hell ARE YOU GONNA DIE! Ouch!"

A good attck resulted in a good pain too- he forgot about how 'almost-diamond' Helius became now. Sadly, he only got another swing as a reply. It was faster than before Helius used Clever Diamond spell. Hey, did the spell boost his speed or something too?

"I'm gonna die thousands of years after your miserable death today! HA!" the Guardian confidently hacked Narcius, unfortunately that punky guy evaded with such unbelievably cool movement- actually, the truth was Narcius almost slipped from the panel. Nevertheless, no matter how cool he did it, the fire trace still got the tip of his porcupine hair.

He patted those red strands of hair in panic, "Damn! My hair again? Gawd!"

As if he did nothing, Helius fiercely attacked Narcius continuously. Getting pushed to the corner, he then continued to teleport in finding the 'thing'. Said it was made from magic by a great magician, at least to fight magic, he must use magic or magical weapon. Moreover, Ruecian told something about its material, the reason that made Narcius desperately try to find it.

"Not this one.. I think I've touched this.. Oh, not again.. No, not this weapon.. No, it's not- Ouch! Dammit sword!

"Stop disappearing and reappearing like that, Human!"

Narcius stopped for awhile, "Yeah.. So you can [expletive] kill me, am I right?" Helius answered him by giving a quick slash, yet he only got nothing but empty air. Whereas Narcius had reappeared some meters before him, chuckling. Nevertheless, actually he felt really tired.

Helius finally showed the temper tantrum movement- he stomped repeatedly on the panel.. just like someone from East Heaven Kingdom. 'Freak..' Narcius frowned, while his hand kept working to touch the wall.

"I can't stand your teleportation anymore! What if I use up all of the space here so you can't teleport anywhere, huh?"

Stopped touching, Narcius blinked in suspicion."What.. are you talking about?"

"Well, you'll see, Human.. It's gonna be sooo good!" Helius smirked.

Feeling insecure, Narcius clenched fist, 'This can't be good.. No, it's never good.'

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So sorry for the late update.. Well, since the college gets hectic day by day, in my spare time I kinda prefer resting than writing fanfiction since looking at the cellphone display is so tiring.. =( By the way, I'm happy to finally finish Chapter 11! =D Thank you for ReLiC_AnGeL who sent some supporting messages.. Hey, but you have to continue your fanfic too! =P

I think that's all. Please review my story, just tell me everything in your mind about this fanfiction.. It's been months- I think- since the last update, I might make mistakes. So once again, leave some review. =D And happy 2012! \(^o^)/


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